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BV  600  .H55  1844 
Hill,  George. 
What  is  the  Church  of 
Christ? 


WHAT    IS 


THE 


CHURCH    OF    CHRIST? 


JOHN  D.  TOY,  PRINTER, 

CORNER  OF  MARKET  AND  ST.  PAUL-STS. 

BALTIMORE. 


WHAT     IS 


CHURCH    OF    CHRIST? 


/Jv       ^  t  (f-^q.s^  1^  i^t. 


Sirs,  ^e  are  brethren."— Acts  vii.  23. 


BALTIMORE: 

DANIEL     B  RUNN  E  R, 

No.  1  Charles  street. 

1844. 


A   PASTORAL   LETTER 


|)eople  of  t!)e  Wxottsz  of  iHarj^lanlr. 

Dear  Brethren : 

Our  blessed  Lord  declares  it  to  have  been 
the  end  of  His  birth  and  coming  into  the  world 
that  He  should  bear  witness  unto  the  truth.  ^  It 
is  through  the  truth^  He  affirms  in  His  solemn 
communings  with  the  Father,  tliat  they  whom 
He  sends  into  the  world  are  sanctified.*  To 
speak  the  truth  in  love,  is  the  mode  of  growing 
up  into  Him  in  all  things,  which  is  the  Head, 
even  Christ.^ 

Now  the  truth  is  unchangeable  and  indivisi- 

^  John  xviii.  37.  "  John  xvii.  17 — 19. 

3Eph.  iv.  15. 


Vi  PASTORAL    LETTER. 

ble.     "./2Z7  things  whatsoever  Jesus  had  com- 
manded them,"  the  apostles  were  to  "teach" 
men  "  to  observe ;"  *  and  by  so  teachmg  them, 
they  brought  them  to  "the  acknowledging  of 
the  truth  which  is  after  godliness." ^     As  Chris- 
tians we  are  bound  equally  to  all  the  truth,  in 
faith  and  practice,  and  to  every  part.     It  is  no 
privilege  of  ours  to  select  what  we  deem  im- 
portant, and  lay  the  rest  aside.     We  have  not 
THE  truths  if  we  are  destitute  of  any  portion  of 
it.     If  our  destitution  is  the  result  of  our  own 
choice,  we  are  guilty  of  the  rejection  of  the 
whole.     It  came  from  heaven  entire.     It  was 
sent  into  the  world,  by  its  commissioned  bear- 
ers, entire.     It  must  be  acknowledged  and  held 
in  that  same  entireness. 

We  dare  not,  therefore,  dear  brethren,  assent 
to  those  who  distinguish  between  preaching  the 
Church  and  preaching  Christ.  It  is  undenia- 
ble that  our  Lord  Himself  "commanded"^  re- 
ference to  "the  Church."*      It  was  certainly 

iMatt.  xxviii.  20.  sTitusi.  1. 

3  See  Matt,  xxviii.  20.  "  Matt,  xviii.  17. 


PASTORAL    LETTER.  Vll 

one  of  the  "things"  His  apostles  were  sent  to 
"teach  men  to  observe."  How  they  did  teach 
men  on  the  subject,  the  whole  inspired  Epistle 
to  the  Ephesians  shows.  Surely  no  man  can 
read  that  Epistle  through,  and  doubt  whether 
its  holy  writer  considered  the  mode  in  which 
men  are  gathered  together  in  Christ,^  and  the 
nature  of  their  union  in  Him,  as  fundamental 
parts  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.*  "The 
Church"  he  declares  to  be  that  for  ^vhich 
Christ  "gave  Himself." ^  Who  that  believes 
in  the  efficacy  of  that  most  precious  Gift,  but 
must  desire  to  know  what  it  purchased .?  And 
how  much  more,  when  taught  that,  so  pur- 
chased, it  is  presented  unto  Himself,*  to  be 
"His  body,  the  fulness  of  Him  who  filleth  all 
in  all!"  Is  the  nature  of  that  which  is  so 
spoken  of,  among  the  lesser  things,  which  may 
be  safely  laid  aside,  while  weightier  matters  of 
close  personal  interest  engross  the  attention.? 
My  brethren !  if  there  be  a  question  of  all-en- 

'Eph.  i.  10.  2Eph.  iv.  21. 

3Eph.  V.  25.  4Eph.  i.  23. 


Vill  PASTORAL    LETTER. 

grossing  moment  to  each  one  of  us  in  particu- 
lar, it  is  Whether  he  be  a  living  member  of  the 
Body  of  his  Redeemer,  "of  His  ilesh,  and  of 
His  bones."  ^  For  has  not  He  told  us,  that 
except  we  abide  in  Him,  as  living  branches  of 
the  true  Vine,  we  must  be  cast  forth  unto  the 
burning  ?2  Whether  we  be  branches  of  the 
Vine;  whether,  being  so,  we  abide  in  Him, 
bearing  fruit;  are  surely  vital  questions  to 
those  who  expect  to  live  through  His  Name ! 
Observe,  I  beg  you,  that  this  question  affects 
the  evidence  and  warrant  of  our  hope,  not  tlie 
kind  and  degree  of  the  hope  itself.  L\  Christ 
ALONE  is  our  hope.^  But  liow  are  we  assured 
that  we  are  "i?i  Him?"*  The  Name  of 
Christ  alone  is  our  salvation.^  But  what  is 
our  warrant  to  take  shelter  in  that  Name.^^  and 

lEph.  V.  30. 

2  John  XV.  1—6. 

3  1  Cor.  XV.  19.    2  Cor.  v.  17.     1  Thess.  i  3. 
"Eph.  i.  3,  10,  12;   iii.  6.    Gal.iii.27.    Rom.  xii.5. 

1  Pet.  iii.  16. 

5  Acts  iv.  12.    John  iii.  18. 

6  Acts  x.  43;  ii.  38;  xix.  5.     1  Cor.  i.  13.— Acts  xv. 

14, 17.     Rom.  X.  13—15. 


PASTORAL    LETTER.  ix 

our  proof  that  we  have  done  it?  There  are 
differences  within  our  own  communion  on  this 
very  important  point.  But  those  differences 
do  not  affect  the  nature  and  extent  of  our  de- 
pendence upon  the  free  grace  of  God  by  which 
Christ  Jesus  "is  made  unto  us  wisdom,  and 
righteousness,  and  sanctiiication,  and  redemp- 
tion; that,  according  as  it  is  written.  He  that 
glorieth,  let  him  glory  in  the  Lord."i 

On  the  contrary,  those  who  most  strenuously 
insist  on  the  necessity  of  union  with  Christ  in 
His  Body,  the  Church,  by  communion  with  a 
definite  visible  society,  traceable  in  its  existence 
and  organization  up  to  Him,  do  so  in  the  deep- 
est sense  of  the  utter  inability  of  man  to  save 
himself, — his  entire  dependence  on  redeeming 
love  for  all  the  work,  from  first  to  last,  by 
which  he  is  to  be  translated  from  darkness  into 
light  and  from  condemnation  into  everlastino- 

to 

life.     It  is   because  "we  put  not  our  trust  in 

any   thing   that   we   do,"  2    that   we   look    to 

Christ  for  all^  in  the  way  of  His  provision. 

'  1  Cor.  i.  30,  31.  -^Collect  for  Sexagesima. 


X  PASTORAL    LETTER. 

It  is  because  we  believe  forms  and  ordinances 
to  be  utterly  worthless  except  as  His  Spirit 
gives  them  vitality  and  saving  efficacy,  that  we 
insist  on  tracing  them  all  to  Him,  and  finding 
His  promise  to  be  in  all,  or  utterly  eschewing 
them. 

The  more  thoroughly  we  believe,  the  more 
strenuously  we  inculcate,  the  depravity  of  na- 
ture and  helplessness  of  condition  of  the  unre- 
generate  man;  the  freeness  and  fulness  of  jus- 
tifying and  sanctifying  grace ;  the  entire  absence 
of  all  claim  of  merit  in  the  receivers ;  the  need 
of  a  change  of  heart,  wrought  by  the  hidden 
working  of  the  Spirit  in  the  inner  man;  the 
dependence  of  the  new  birth  for  its  beginning, 
of  the  renewed  life  for  its  continuance  and 
growth,  wholly  and  solely  on  the  influences 
from  above  that  are  shed  abroad  abundantly  by 
God  the  Holy  Ghost  on  such  as  neither  resist 
nor  quench  them;  the  uselessness  of  all  forms 
and  ordinances  to  the  adult  partaker  who  has 
not  a  living  faith ;  the  increase  of  condemnation 
resulting  from  the  abuse  of  spiritual  privileges, 


PASTORAL    LETTER.  XI 

gifts  and  influences ; — these  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  the  Gospel  the  more  we  cherish  and 
exalt,  the  better  we  are  qualified  to  appreciate 
the  full  importance  of  the  question,  What  is  the 
Church?  the  more  humbly  we  shall  approach 
it,  the  more  fervently  we  shall  pray  for  Divme 
assistance  in  the  solution. 

Observe  again,  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  that 
so  far  from  tampering  with  the  holy  Word  of 
God,  or  setting  aside  its  supreme  and  sole  au- 
thority, it  is  the  deepest  reverence  for  its  teach- 
ing that  leads  us  to  maintain  the  indispensable- 
ness  of  communion  with  the  visible  Church  of 
Christ  as  organized  by  His  command.  We 
receive  that  teaching  implicitly,  and  refuse  to 
explain  it  away  or  lower  it  in  accommodation 
to  prevailing  views  of  fitness.  If  others  can  be 
induced  to  admit  that  "the  Body  of  Christ" 
is  a  mere  abstraction,  an  unreal  notion,  a  name 
for  an  aggregation  of  individuals  without  cor- 
porate organization  or  functions,  ice  can  not^ 
because  we  dare  not  set  aside  the  plain  letter  of 
Scripture,  which  says,  "as  the  body  is  one,  and 


Xll  PASTORAL    LETTER. 

hath  many  members,  and  all  the  members  of 
that  one  body,  being  many,  are  one  body;  so 
ALSO  IS  Christ.  For  by  one  Spirit  are  we  all 
baptized  info  one  hody. —  Ye  are  the  Body  op 
Christ,  and  memhers  in  particular. — So  wc^ 
being  many,  are  0x\e  Body  in  Christ,  and 
every  one  memhers^  one  of  another."^  This 
is  no  description  of  "an  aggregation"  of  inde- 
pendent persons  or  communities,  but  of  "a  body 
wliose  life  dejyends  on  its  unity."  As  we  read 
it,  we  receive  it;  and  are  sure  that  we  receive 
it  rightly,  because  the  whole  Christian  world, 
for  fifteen  hundred  years,  without  an  exception, 
so  received  it.  Hard  of  admission  as  it  may 
be  to  mere  reason,  (though  indeed  it  is  not 
hard,  rightly  taken,)  trying  as  its  consequences 
may  prove  to  our  natural  feelings  and  propensi- 
ties, (though  indeed,  to  the  spiritual  mind,  they 
are  full  of  peace,  and  hope,  and  triumph,)  we 
bow  humbly  in  acceptance  of  this  representa- 
tion of  the  company  of  believers,  because  it  is 
tlie  representation  of  the  Bible.     In  the  Bible, 

J 1  Cor.  xii.  12,  13,  17.    Rom.  xii.  5. 


PASTORAL    LETTER.  XUl 

in  the  Bible  alone,  we  seek  for  all  saving  truth. 
From  the  Bible,  from  the  Bible  alone,  we  would 
derive  all,  even  the  least  particulars  of  our 
faith  and  teaching.  But  it  must  be  the  Bible  in 
its  own  pure,  primitive  meaning;  not  explained 
away,  and  accommodated  to  modern  notions 
and  evil  times. 

And  now,  dear  brethren,  what  I  would  fain 
say  in  person  to  each  one  of  you,  on  a  topic 
among  the  most  important  that  can  occupy 
your  thoughts,  I  offer  to  your  use  as  I  found  it 
in  this  little  volume  ready  prepared  to  my  hand 
in  a  form  better  than  I  could  give  it.  In  dis- 
charge of  my  duty  to  God,  and  for  His  sake  to 
you,  I  commend  the  followmg  pages  to  your 
use.  Give  them,  I  beseech  you,  thoughtful 
and  prayerful  study.  Let  not  prejudice  WTest 
aside  your  judgment,  nor  any  human  authority 
deter  you  from  embracing  and  holding  fast 
whatever  you  shall  find  clearly  proved,  by 
sound  reasoning,  out  of  God's  holy  Word. 
Remember  that  it  is  the  truth  of  God  you 
are  seeking  to  find  out,  and  that  you  are  doing 


XIV  PASTORAL    LETTER. 

it  IN  God's  sight.  My  earnest  and  continual 
prayer  shall  go  up  before  Him,  that  if  in  any 
thing  as  your  teacher  /  have  erred,  He  will  cor- 
rect me,  and  show  my  error  and  save  you  from 
it;  and  that  you  may  be  guided  by  His  blessed 
Spirit  into  the  acknowledgment  of  all  truth,  and 
obedience  unto  it  with  a  ready  mind. 
Your  affectionate 

brother  in  Christ, 

and  servant  in  the  Gospel, 
William  Rollinson  Whittingham, 
-JSishop  of  Maryland. 

Baltimore, 

Feast  of  the  Presentation  of  Christ  w  the  Temple,  1844. 


PREFACE 


To  my  fellow-members  in  the  Church  of 
Christ  I  desire  affectionately  and  sincerely  to 
dedicate  the  present  little  volume.  My  object 
is  to  direct  their  attention  to  that  sacred  society 
to  which  it  is  our  privilege  to  belong,  and  with 
which  our  present  happiness  and  our  future 
hopes  are  so  intimately  connected.  It  is  not, 
indeed,  proposed  to  give  a  view  of  the  polity  or 
constitution  of  the  Church,  to  consider  its  orders 
of  ministers,  its  laws  and  canons,  its  synods,  its 
rules  of  faith,  its  forms  of  worship,  its  authority. 
It  is  not  proposed  to  furnish  an  outline  of  its 


XVI  PREFACE. 

history  under  the  varied  scenes  of  persecution 
and  prosperity,  or  any  sketch  of  its  future  pros- 
pects, how  it  shall  be  universally  established  in 
the  earth,  or  how  it  shall  be  finally  purged  from 
unworthy  members,  and  be  made  perfect  and 
complete.  Nor,  again,  is  it  proposed  to  consi- 
der the  Church  under  the  various  important  at- 
tributes which  inseparably  belong  to  it,  as  being 
holy,  and  as  being  catholic,  and  as  being  apos- 
tolic, and  the  like.  I  would  simply  direct 
Christ's  members  to  the  fact,  that  there  truly  is 
a  Church  to  which  they  belong,  and  define  what 
that  Church  is  by  its  essential  principles. 

Does  the  subject.  Christian  reader,  appear  too 
plain  to  require  any  comment,  too  simple  for 
even  the  most  ignorant  to  need  instruction  ?  Still, 
I  pray  you,  give  me  your  patient  attention  to 
what  I  have  to  say.  For  even  if  the  question  be 
already  fully  comprehended,  yet  may  it  not  be 
useful  to  recal  what  we  know,  and  by  a  careful 
contemplation  of  our  Christian  calling,  to  learn 
to  cultivate  more  and  more  the  character  to 
which  it  ought  to  lead  us.^     Or,  perhaps,  the 


PREFACE.  XVll 

very  fact  of  its  simplicity  may  liave  caused  it 
to  be  somewhat  overlooked,  while  it  cannot 
diminish  its  importance:  and  errors  may  have 
passed  undetected,  because  they  occur  where 
we  have  so  little  expected  to  find  them. 

True,  there  was  a  time  when  the  Church  was 
well  known  and  understood.  When  Christians 
were  comparatively  few  in  number,  and  were 
surrounded  and  pressed  m  on  every  side  by 
enemies  who  despised  and  persecuted  them  on 
account  of  their  faith,  then  the  Church  was 
clearly  perceived  to  be  not  a  mere  name,  but 
something  definitely  marked  out,  and  discerni- 
ble as  a  living  reality.  The  fellow-feeling  arising 
from  common  dangers,  and  the  necessity  of 
mutual  encouragement  and  protection,  made 
them  lay  aside  private  differences,  and  fully 
realize  their  bond  of  union  as  one  body  through- 
out the  w^orld.  They  were  able  to  discover  the 
fellowship  they  actually  possessed  one  with  an- 
other, by  means  of  the  daily  exercise  of  those 
brotherly  duties  of  affection  which  these  trials 
and  sufferings  compelled  them  to  render:  and 


XVlll  PREFACE. 

the  boundary  line  which  surrounded  them  and 
kept  them  distinct  from  others,  was  too  plainly 
marked  out  with  the  blood  of  martyrs  to  escape 
the  observation  of  any. 

But  God  has  blessed  his  Church  with  peace. 
She  is  no  longer  a  besieged  city,  but  enjoys  her 
liberty  in  quiet  and  security.  But  the  danger 
hence  arises  lest  her  bulwarks  become  neglect- 
ed; lest  we  hardly  know  where  the  boundary 
line  runs,  where  the  actual  limits  lie  which 
divide  the  Church  from  the  world,  that  un- 
organised and  indefinite  multitude  from  which 
she  has  in  mercy  been  called  forth.  There  is 
need  that  we  walk  about  Zion,  and  go  round 
about  her,  and  tell  the  towers  thereof;  that  we 
mark  well  her  bulwarks  and  consider  her  pala- 
ces, that  we  may  tell  it  to  the  generation  follow- 
ing. 

Yet  suppose  not  that  our  task  is  the  mere 
work  of  an  antiquary,  wlio  searches  into  things 
almost  lost  in  the  obscurity  of  ages,  from  the 
love  of  investigation  and  curiosity  alone.  We 
are  not  tracing  out  the  course  of  old  walls  which 


PREFACE.  XIX 

surrounded  a  city  long  since  in  ruins,  and  whose 
inhabitants  have  long  become  extinct.  Ours  is 
an  inquiry  of  personal  interest,  for  our  title  and 
our  rights  depend  upon  it.  The  charter  of  our 
King  is  to  the  City  of  God,  and  if  we  pitch  our 
tents  without,  and  neglect  to  enter  in,  we  can- 
not claim  the  privilege  which  the  charter  pre- 
scribes. 

And  let  us  remember,  that  here  must  be  our 
security  against  the  assaults  of  the  opposers  of 
the  faith  of  Christ,  At  all  times,  although  un- 
der various  forms,  there  will  be  made  the  at- 
tempts of  infidelity  and  corruption,  if  not  of  per- 
secution, to  undermine  and  triumph  over  the 
truth.  In  guarding  against  these  attacks,  in  up- 
holding the  faith  in  its  purity  and  its  integrity, 
we  need  that  bulwark  of  defence  which  Christ 
has  Himself  bequeathed,  the  witness  of  his 
Church  as  one  Body  throughout  the  world. 
We  must  act  in  concert,  as  one  army  of  our 
God.  And  to  this  end  we  must  understand  in 
what  our  unity  consists ;  we  must  be  able  to  dis- 
tinguish the  banner  under  which  we  are  mar- 


XX  PREFACE. 

shalled,  and  to  know  the  watchword  of  the 
General  to  whom  we  have  sworn  allegiance. 

It  is  a  source  of  pleasure  and  satisfaction,  that 
they  for  whom  I  have  written  these  chapters  are 
those  who  would  not  be  otherwise  than  mem- 
bers of  Christ^s  Holy  Church.  I  have  not  writ- 
ten for  such  as  care  not  about  the  Christian  name, 
and  who  despise  the  Church  of  God,  which  He 
hath  purchased  with  his  own  blood.  To  these 
the  whole  subject  would  prove  distasteful  and 
tedious.  But  it  will  be  otherwise  with  those 
for  whom  I  have  written.  Among  them  I  may 
reckon  upon  meeting  readers  friendly  disposed 
to  what  I  have  to  say,  and  having  at  least  the 
subject  on  which  I  write  at  heart.  I  may  pre- 
sume upon  finding  many  already  engaged  in  the 
service  of  their  King,  and  seriously  desirous  of 
having  their  heavenly  calling  set  before  their 
view,  in  order  that  they  may  the  more  earnestly 
endeavour  to  fulfil  the  duties  it  imposes  on  them. 
It  is  my  wish  that  these  pages  may,  in  some 
degree,  be  productive  of  such  results. 

Although  any  thing  like  direct  controversy 


PREFACE.  XXI 

has  been  avoided,  yet  it  has  been  my  endeavour 
to  meet  any  objection  which  might  be  likely  to 
sug-g-est  itself  to  the  mind  of  the  reader.  I  have 
desired  to  write  calmly  and  without  prejudice, 
and  in  that  spirit  of  charity  which  on  this  sub- 
ject, above  all  others,  ought  especially  to  be 
maintained.  If  there  is  here  to  be  found  any 
thing  harshly  or  uncharitably  spoken,  I  willingly 
retract  it,  and  wish  it  unsaid,  so  far  as  it  is  harsh 
or  uncharitable.  For  the  truth  needs  not  vio- 
lence or  heat  of  words ;  and  if  there  is  any  truth 
in  what  I  have  written,  I  would  that  it  should 
be  conveyed  in  plainness  and  simplicity  of  ex- 
pression. 

I  conclude  in  the  words  of  one  who  has  ably 
and  learnedly  written  on  the  Church  of  Christ, 
and  who  has  proved  himself  a  champion  of  our 
own  branch  in  particular  against  the  aspersions 
cast  upon  it  by  its  enemies,  by  "beseeching  God, 
,for  his  mercies'  sake,  to  enlighten  them  that  sit 
in  darkness,  to  bring  back  them  that  are  gone 
astray,  to  raise  up  them  that  are  fallen,  to 
strengthen  them  that  stand,  to  confirm   them 


XXll  PREFACE. 

that  are  doubtful,  to  rebuke  Satan,  to  put  an 
end  to  the  manifold  unhappy  contentions  of 
these  times,  to  make  up  the  breaches  of  Sion, 
to  build  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  and  to  love 
it  still." 

George  Hill. 

Shrivenham. 


% 
# 


CONTENTS 


Preface, xv 

PART   I.     The  Doctrine. 

CHAPTER  I. 
The  Definition  proposed 1 

CHAPTER  II. 
The  Church  consists  of  Believers 5 

CHAPTER  III, 
The  Church  is  a  Society 11 

CHAPTER  IV. 

How  the  Church  is  one  Society , 32 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Church  was  founded  on  eartli  by  Jesus  Christ ....     57 


•k: 


XXIV  CONTENTS. 

PART   II.    The  Moral. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Page 

The  advantages   and  importance  of  Membership  in  the 

Church  of  Christ 75 

CHAPTER  ir. 

The  Christian  Character,  as  resulting  from  the  knowledge 

of  what  the  Church  of  Christ  is 113 

CHAPTER  III. 

Prayers  in   reference   to  the   Church  of  Christ,  with  a 
Table  of  Christian  Churches 140 


PART    I 


CHAPTER  I. 

DEFINITION  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST. 

WHAT  is  the  real  and  strict  meaning  of  the 
Church  of  Clirist,  would  appear  (it  might 
be  supposed)  to  the  most  indifferent  person,  an 
inquiry  not  unworthy  of  his  attention,  whatever 
were  his  faith,  or  sentiments  concerning  religion. 
To  us,  however,  who  look  to  Christ  Jesus  as 
to  our  God  and  Saviour — who  receive  his  words 
and  institutions  as  the  words  and  institutions  of 
God,  and  who  acknowledge  that  there  is  none 
other  Name  but  his  given  among  men  whereby 
we  must  be  saved, — to  us  it  is  far  more  than  a 
subject  deserving  merely  of  curiosity  and  specu- 
lative inquiry ; — it  is  one  of  the  deepest  interest 
1 


2  DEFINITIOx\  OF  THE 

and  importance.  And  further,  professing  as  we 
do,  our  belief  in  this  Church,  as  one  of  the 
articles  of  our  Creed,  it  is  plainly  a  part  of  our 
general  duty  of  yielding  a  reasonable  faith,  not 
to  suffer  our  profession  on  this  point  to  be  igno- 
rantly  made,  or  but  obscurely  known.  Our 
whole  faith  is  designed  to  be  directed  to  the 
bringing  forth  its  appropriate  works,  yet  unless 
in  some  degree  known  and  understood,  it  must 
be  fruitless  and  nnprofitable.  Since,  therefore, 
from  the  doctrine  of  "the  Holy  Catholic  Church," 
in  which  we  declare  our  belief,  some  moral  is 
doubtless  intended  to  be  drawn,  some  lessons  of 
brotherly  kindness  towards  her  members — of 
subordination  to  her  rulers — of  coniidence  to- 
wards her  Head,  we  cannot  remain  ignorant  of 
the  doctrine,  without  being  exposed  to  the  dan- 
ger of  failing  in  the  important  duties  which  de- 
pend upon  it. 

Giving  then  all  diligence,  (according  to  the 
Apostle  Peter's  rule  of  profession  in  Christian 
excellence,)  in  adding  to  our  faith  virtue,  and  to 
virtue  knowledge;  and  desiring  that  we  may 
neither  be  barren  nor  unfruitful  in  our  holy  pro- 
fession, we  enter  upon  our  inquiry.  What  is  to 
be  understood  by  "the  Church  of  Christ.^"  Let 
the  question  before  us  be  clearly  understood. 


CHURCH  OF  CHRIST.  S 

It  is  not  proposed  to  consider  tlie  Church  in  a 
spiritual  point  of  view,  in  its  hidden  privilcg-es 
and  its  inward  blessings.  Important  as  such  a 
subject  might  be,  our  present  object  is  mainly 
and  principally  to  view  it  in  its  external  features, 
as  it  is  outwardly  discernible; — as  it  not  only 
presents  itself  to  the  mind  of  the  Christian,  but 
also  stands  forth  before  the  world  at  large. 

Further,  it  is  not  designed  to  inquire  into  the 
marks  by  which  a  sound  Church  may  be  distin- 
guished from  an  unsound,  but  the  marks  whereby 
that  which  truly  is  the  Church  of  Christ  may  be 
distinguished  from  that  which  is  not  the  Church 
of  Christ.  These  two  questions  are  often  con- 
founded, but  for  a  right  understanding  of  the 
subject  must  be  kept  distinct  in  the  mind.  For 
as  when  we  speak  of  a  true  man,  in  the  sense  of 
an  actual  veritable  man,  one  who  is  truly  such, 
and  no  counterfeit — we  must  not  be  understood 
as  if  speaking  of  a  true  man  in  the  sense  of  a 
man  trustvrorthy  and  honest,  so  now  let  it  be 
observed  we  do  not  ask  the  question,  What  is  a 
true  or  sound  Church? — with  this  the  present 
treatise  has  nothing  to  do : — our  inquiry  is  rather 
What  the  Church  of  Christ  truly  is. 

To  this  inquiry  the  answer  which 

1     .         .       ,         ,  .  „  Definition. 

is   proposed    is   simply    this: — The 


4  definition  of  the  church. 

Church  of  Christ  is,  The  one  Society  of 
Believers  which  was  founded  by  Christ 
Jesus. 

We  shall  proceed  in  the  following  chapters  to 
confirm  in  order,  each  one  of  the  material  points 
in  this  definition.  Our  object  will  be  to  show 
that  the  Church,  (1st.)  consists  of  Believers; 
(2nd.)  constituted  a  Society ;  (3rd.)  wJiich  is  one ; 
and  (4th.)  was  fomided  upon  earth  hy  Christ 
Jesus.  And  these  points,  fully  understood,  will 
be  found  to  include  the  essential  particulars 
which  combine  to  make  up  the  idea  of  the 
Church,  and  will  be  sufiicient  to  enable  us  to 
recognise  it  in  its  various  branches,  wherever 
they  may  be  found. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE    CHURCH    CONSISTS    OF    BELIEVERS. 

AMONG  those  higher  powers  of  discernment 
with  which  God  has  endowed  man,  is  that 
by  which  he  feels  himself  mysteriously  over- 
whelmed with  the  sense  of  something  above 
him  and  around  him,  far  beyond  his  know^ledge 
and  conception.  He  finds  in  himself,  and  in  all 
things  terrestrial,  a  deficiency  which  he  cannot 
supply,  and  often  feels  a  kind  of  restlessness  for 
something  purer  and  more  satisfying  than  any 
thing  which  he  here  enjoys.  And  then  there  is 
the  deep,  dark  mystery  of  death  before  him, 
which  he  seeks,  but  seeks  in  vain,  to  fathom. 
He  finds  himself  here  for  a  few  short  years  in 
the  light  of  life,  but  whither  he  shall  pass  in  the 
night  of  death,  or  where  he  shall  wake  again, 
this  by  his  own  philosophy  he  cannot  tell. 

These  yearnings  of  the  soul  of  man  form  that 
part  of  his  constitution  which  has  fitted  him  to. 
1* 


6 


THE    CHURCH 


be  a  religious  being.  He  is  made  and  adapted 
for  faith : — for  laying  hold  on  some  hope  which 
shall  reveal  a  supply  for  his  deficiencies,  which 
shall  ease  him  of  his  restlessness — give  him 
something  for  his  soul  to  confide  in — direct  his 
aims  to  high  and  holy  things — yield  him  com- 
fort in  death,  and  a  ray  of  light  beyond  the 
grave.  Such  a  hope  is  set  before  him  in  the 
Gospel.  It  has  revealed  to  him  a  way  of  salva- 
tion, and  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light. 
And  it  not  only  invites  him  to  believe,  but  de- 
mands faith  as  the  grand  indispensable  requisite, 
without  which  he  cannot  be  admitted  into  the 
covenant  which  it  proposes.  Men  are  received 
into  membership  in  the  Church,  not  as  being  of 
this  nation  or  of  that,  not  as  being  great  or 
learned,  not  for  personal  distinction's  sake  or 
reward,  but  simply  as  men  of  faith  in  the  Gospel 
of  Christ.  Thus,  Philip's  reply  to  the  officer 
who  desired  Christian  baptism  was,  "If  thou 
believest  with  all  thy  heart  thou  mayest."  To 
which  the  officer  answered,  "I  believe  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God."^  And  those 
admitted  into  the  Church  upon  the  first  preach- 
ing and  miracles  of  the  Apostles  are  described 

»  Acts  viii.  .37,  38 


CONSISTS    OF    BELIEVERS.  7 

as,  "They  who  gladly  received  the  word,"  or 
shuply,  as  "believers,"  who  as  such,  were  "bap- 
tized," and  "added  unto  the  Lord."^  There 
could  be  no  higher  quality  required  from  man 
than  this  pure  and  holy  faith — no  higher  scope 
at  which  to  aim  in  the  constitution  of  any  body 
of  men.  For  this  faith  is  in  its  objects  most 
exalted,  in  its  influence  most  purifying.  It  is 
the  root  of  all  holy  thoughts  and  acts — the 
soul's  communing  with  God — the  wing  of  the 
soul  which  bears  it  to  heaven — and  the  key 
which  opens  the  mysteries  of  the  unseen  world. 
And  there  is  this  benediction  connected  with  it, 
"Blessed  are  they  which  have  not  seen  and  yet 
have  believed." 

The  question  which  now  presents  who  are 
itself  is,  Whom  are  we  practically  to  ^e'levers  ? 
account  Believers?  With  the  heart  we  know 
that  man  believeth,  and  it  is  true  that  in  his 
works  his  faith  must  be  displa3"ed.  But  we  are 
men,  and  can  neither  see  into  the  heart  of 
others,  nor  with  any  certainty  decide  upon  the 
motives  of  their  actions.  In  our  own  indivi- 
dual case,  indeed,  we  must  examine  into  the 
reality  and   genuineness  of  our  faith,  nor  rest 

•  Acts  ii.  41 ;  v.  14. 


8  THE    CHURCH 

content  till  we  behold  in  it  its  fruits:  but  in 
Those  who  ^^^P^^^  ^^  Others,  we  are  expressly 
profess  commanded  not  to  judge.     Our  gene- 

ral rule  therefore  must  be,  in  the  mat- 
ter of  faith,  to  account  others  only  as  they  ac- 
count themselves.  He,  who  professes  himself 
a  believer,  we  must  esteem  to  be  a  believer,  so 
far  as  regards  the  general  classification  which 
our  present  argument  requires.  Especially  it  is 
just  to  consider  him  a  believer  by  whom  this 
profession  has  been  openly  made  in  solemn 
sacrament  before  God  and  the  conOTegation — a 
ratification  far  more  serious  than  that  of  ordi- 
nary oath :  and  we  must  continue  to  esteem  him 
as  such,  until  by  some  public  act  or  declaration 
of  his  own,  he  would  be  understood  to  have 
renounced  the  faith  which  once  he  professed. 
We  need  no  argument  to  prove,  that  among 
those  whom  we  thus  account  as  believers,  there 
will  be  false  believers  as  well  as  true.  There 
will  be  the  self-deceiver,  and  he  who  attempts 
to  deceive  others  on  the  one  hand,  as  well  as 
the  genuine  and  sincere  on  the  other.  In  the 
Church,  therefore,  as  consisting  of  believers,  we 
may  expect  that  the  same  mixture  of  good  and 
evil  will  be  found.  And  the  Scripture  under 
various  emblems   plainly  represents   that  such 


CONSISTS    OF    BELIEVERS.  9 

must  be  its  character.  The  vine  had  dry  and 
barren  bmnches,  as  well  as  good  and  fruitful 
ones.  The  net  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven 
gathered  of  every  kind,  both  good  and  bad. 
The  tares  were  sown  by  the  enemy  among  the 
wheat  in  the  field,  and  gi-ew  up  with  it,  the  ser- 
vants not  being  permitted  to  root  them  up,  lest 
they  should  root  up  the  wheat  also.  The  end 
of  the  world  will  reveal  a  wide  difference  be- 
tween the  two  classes  which  are  thus  described ; 
but  till  then,  we  must  judge  of  them  by  their 
profession,  and  deem  them  alike  as  believers. 

But  further,  in  the  number  of  be-  rpj^^^^  ^j^^ 
lievers  must    be  included   not   only  t)eiiig  incom- 
those  who  personally  make  a  profes-  sureties  for 
sion    of  faith,   but   also   they,   who  ^^''  ^^"^• 
being  incompetent  of  faith  in  themselves,  profess 
faith  in  the  person  of  others  who  act  in  their 
stead.    These  cannot,  we  may  be  sure,  be  guilty 
of  actual  disbelief,  or  a  rejection  of  the  faith; 
and  on  this  ground,  they  may,  perhaps,  be  even 
more  readily  admitted  to  the  name  of  believers 
than  the  former,  by  whom  a  profession  might 
outwardly  be  maintained,  while  actual  infidelity 
bears   sway  within.     But  a  stronger  claim  in 
their  behalf  rests  on  the  declaration,  that  "God 
accepteth  a  man  according  to  that  he  hath,  and 


10       THE    CHURCH    CONSISTS    OF    BELIEVERS. 

not  according  to  that  he  hath  not."  They  have 
not  the  exercise  of  faith,  because  they  have  not 
yet  the  power;  but  the  Church  pledges  her's, 
and  God,  who  was  wont  to  deal  with  his  people 
the  Jews,  not  individually  only,  but  as  a  nation, 
receives  them  and  owns  them  as  believers  upon 
the  Church's  faith,  openly  declared  in  their 
name,  in  the  profession  made  by  their  sponsors. 


I 


CHAPTER   III, 

THE    CHURCH    OF    CHRIST    IS    A    SOCIETY. 

T  has  been  shown  in  the  preceding  chapter, 
that  the  Church  consists  of  believers ;  believ- 
ers indeed,  known  and  accounted  such  only  by 
their  profession ;  yet  since  our  inquiry  respect- 
ing the  Church  relates  to  it  as  it  is  discernible 
by  outward  marks  and  notes,  it  suffices  that  the 
faith  of  those  who  compose  it,  be  in  like  man- 
ner estimated  as  it  is  outwardly  declared. 

But  the  definition  proposed  assigns  a  limita- 
tion: it  describes  the  Church,  not  as  believers 
merely,  but  as  a  society  of  believers.  The  object 
of  the  present  chapter  will  therefore  be  to  prove 
that  believers  who  compose  the  Church,  are 
necessarily  believers  formed  into  one  body — 
that  it  is  in  fact  a  society.  What  is  the  bond 
or  principle  of  unity — what  it  is  which  makes 
them  one,  and  unites  them  all  into  a  w^hole, 
will  be  the  subject  treated  of  in  the  chapter 
M^hich  follows. 


12  THE    CHURCH    OF    CHRIST 

Hitherto,  while  considering  the  Church  only 
in  the  separate  individuals  who  compose  it,  we 
have  not  met  with  any  difference  of  opinion  de- 
serving of  particular  notice.  But  now  that  we 
have  entered  upon  the  consideration  of  the 
Church  in  its  collective  capacity,  we  find  three 
distinct  opinions  very  extensively  prevailing  on 
the  subject.  These  opinions  it  would  be  very 
easy  to  assign  to  their  respective  parties,  to  the 
principles  with  which  they  each  most  consist- 
ently combine.  At  the  same  time,  unaccountable 
as  it  may  be,  through  the  want  of  consideration, 
they  are  to  be  found  indiscriminately  held  by 
those  whose  sentiments  on  other  religious  mat- 
ters would  generally  be  found  to  agree.  It  will 
be  best,  therefore,  to  state  them  simply,  and  ex- 
amine them  on  their  own  merits. 
Three  opin-  The  Churcli,  according  to  many 
ions  stated,  persons,  is  the  wliole  number  of  be- 
lievers. It  matters  not  where  or  how,  singly  or 
together,  so  as  they  believe  in  our  Lord  and 
Saviour,  they  are  his  Churcli ;  and  the  Church, 
as  we  can  discern  it,  is  the  whole  number  of 
those  who  profess  this  faith.  This  is  the  first 
of  the  opinions  which  prevail  on  the  subject. 

The  opinion  of  others  is,  the  Church  is  the 
whole  number  of  societies  of  believers.     It  is 


IS  A  SOCIETY.  13 

quite  possible,  these  would  admit,  to  be  a  be- 
liever in  Christ,  and  yet  not  a  member  of  his 
Church,  because  still  an  unenrolled  believer,  an 
unbaptized  person.  In  order  to  be  a  member  of 
the  Church,  it  is  necessary  to  be  a  member  of 
some  Christian  society ;  and  by  being  individu- 
ated into  a  particular  community,  we  obtain  an 
entrance  into  the  Church  Catholic ;  so  that  the 
Church  does  not  consist  of  the  whole  number 
of  believers,  but  it  consists  of  the  ichole  number 
of  bodies  or  societies  of  believers. 

The  third  opinion  is  that  which  has  already 
been  stated  in  our  definition.  The  Church  is 
itself  a  society  of  believers.  It  is  a  number  of 
persons  not  separate  and  distinct,  but,  as  be- 
lievers, combined  together  into  one  fraternity. 
As  individuals,  indeed,  they  are  many;  and  as 
particular  Societies,  or  Churches,  they  are  many ; 
but  there  is  also  some  real  and  actual  bond  which 
unites  them,  and  constitutes  them  one  society". 

Now  it  will  be  seen  that  the  two 

Is  th  e 

former  opinions,  although  widely  dif-  cimrch  a 
ferent  from  each  other,  are  yet  alike  ^rl'socrety ? 
in  one  respect :  that  they  describe  the 
Church  as  denoting  a  class  or  description.  The 
one  says.  It  is  a  certain  class  of  men ; — the  other. 
It  is  a  certain  class  of  societies  :  so  that  the  ques- 
2 


14  THE   CHURCH  OF  CHRIST 

tion  is  simply,  Is  the  Cliurcli,  taken  collectively,  a 
society^  or  is  it  a  class  f  And  if  it  can  be  shown 
that  it  is  the  former,  it  must  follow  that  both 
the  opinions  must  be  rejected,  in  which  it  is 
viewed  as  the  latter. 

What  is  a  I  am  Writing  for  plain  people,  and 

Class  ?  ^j^^  therefore  desirous,  before  proceed- 

ing further,  to  make. as  clear  as  possible  what  is 
meant  by  the  two  words — a  class,  and  a  society, 
and  to  point  out  the  distinction  of  the  one  from 
the  other.  Now  what  do  we  mean  by  the  for- 
mer, when  used  by  us  ordinarily  in  other  mat- 
ters .''  If  we  were  speaking  of  any  of  the  various 
professions  of  life,  we  might  probably  make  use 
of  the  term ;  we  might  call,  for  example,  all  la- 
bouring men  a  class  of  people ;  tradespeople,  or 
farmers,  or  the  gentry,  distinct  classes  or  descrip- 
tions of  men.  It  seems  we  perceive  a  certain 
similarity  in  the  pursuits  and  mode  of  procuring 
a  livelihood  among  the  individuals  composing 
each  of  these  sets ;  and  hence,  although  every 
individual  is  wholly  independent  of  the  rest,  we 
in  imagination  put  them  together,  and  speak  of 
them  as  a  class.  In  like  manner,  to  add  further 
examples,  we  may  range  together  all  charitable 
people  in  the  world;  as  being  individuals  alike 
in  this  respect,  that  they  have  each  a  disposition 


IS  A  SOCIETY.  15 

of  benevolence  and  kindness,  and  exercise  them- 
selves accordingly  in  works  of  charity,  we  view 
them  in  our  own  minds,  and  speak  of  them  as  a 
class.  So,  again,  temperate  people;  for  these, 
as  being  alike  in  this,  that  they  never  give  way 
to  excess,  we  naturally,  in  our  minds,  classify 
together,  however  distinct  they  may  be,  and  dis- 
similar in  all  other  respects.  When  Linnaeus, 
the  great  naturalist,  arranged  plants  into  their 
various  classes,  he  did  not  combine  them  toge- 
ther under  appropriate  names,  from  any  real 
connexion  which  one  plant  had  with  another :  a 
sweet  pea  has  nothing  more  to  do  with  a  labur- 
num, although  they  stand  together  in  the  same 
class,  than  it  has  to  do  with  a  thistle  or  a  pear- 
tree,  in  another.  He  examined  only  in  what 
points  one  flower  corresponded  with  another, 
and  then  distributed  them  into  their  respective 
classes,  solely  on  the  ground  of  the  similarity 
perceived. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  we  observe  what  is  a 
how  we  ordinarily  use  the  word  so-  Society? 
cie/2/,  it  will  be  perceived  that  we  imply  by  it, 
not  similarity  only,  but  a  certain  actual  joining 
together  and  connexion  of  the  members  which 
compose  it.  We  speak  of  charitable  persons,  it 
has  been  already  observed,  as  being  a  description 


16 


THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST 


or  class  of  people ;  but  we  call  them  a  society, 
if  they  join  together,  for  the  furtherance  of  some 
common  design,  into  an  organized  and  connected 
body.  Temperate  people  we  may  call  a  class ; 
but  if  any  enrol  themselves  together,  as  such,  we 
naturally  designate  them  a  temperance  society. 
Criterion  of  ^^^^  difference  to  be  observed  is 
distinction     this  :  in  a  class  there  is  no  real  union : 

between  a  .  .  ' 

Class  and  a  the  parts  have  nothing  to  do  with  one 
..ociety.  another;  only  we  see  in  them  some 
points  of  resemblance,  and  thus  think  of  them 
together,  as  a  notion,  and  name  them  together — • 
like  a  heap  of  wheels  wholly  out  of  gear,  which 
we  may,  notwithstanding,  class  together,  and 
call  machinery.  A  society,  on  the  contrary,  is 
a  reality,  an  union,  Avhich  exists  elsewhere  than 
in  our  own  minds.  It  is  an  actual  organization, 
with  all  its  parts  bearing  to  one  another  a  mu- 
tual relation;  like  the  corresponding  pieces  of 
machinery  no  longer  separated,  and  only  existing 
as  individual  wheels,  but  put  together  into  a  sys- 
tem, and  capable  of  working  as  an  engine.  And 
this  distinction  between  a  class  and  a  society  we 
may,  in  all  cases,  readily  detect,  by  observing 
that  a  class  (being  nothing  really  existing)  can 
have  no  founder,  has  no  rules,  no  discipline, 
requires  no  formal  admission,  and  permits  of  no 


IS  A  SOCIETY.  17 

formal  rejection;  whereas  the  reverse  of  all  this 
must  be  the  case  in  respect  to  a  society.  The 
classes  of  plants,  for  example,  as  arranged  by 
Linna3us,  were  not  founded  by  him;  for  the 
similarities  among  them,  which  he  brought  to 
notice,  had  existed  long  before :  he  only  com- 
bined them  accordingly  in  a  sort  of  imaginary 
union.  The  class  of  temperate  people,  again, 
cannot  have  been  the  institution  of  any  founder, 
because  it  also  exists  only  as  a  notion ;  and  the 
belonging  to  this  class  of  men,  or  the  ceasing  to 
belong  to  it,  depends  solely  on  the  simple  fact 
of  being  temperate  or  not,  and  by  no  means  on 
any  mode  of  admission,  or  discipline,  or  rejec- 
tion, which  any  may  have  the  power  to  exercise. 
A  society,  on  the  contrary,  possesses  these  attri- 
butes; for  being  an  actual  combination,  there 
must  have  been  some  one  who  has  produced  the 
combination ;  and  being  a  combination  according 
to  system  and  organization  of  parts,  there  must 
be  some  rule  and  order  by  which  it  is  so  orga- 
nized :  and  thus  the  having  a  founder,  and  disci- 
pline, and  officers,  and  modes  of  initiation,  and 
of  expulsion,  constitute  the  distinguishing  marks 
whereby  a  body  of  men  may  be  known  as  a 
society. 
2* 


18  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST 

The  Church  If  now  we  liavG  gained  any  insight 
IS  a  Society,  j^-j^^  ^]-^g  meaning  of  these  two  words, 
and  are  able,  in  some  degree,  to  discern  the  one 
from  the  other,  we  may  proceed  to  show,  from 
the  criteria  ah'eady  given,  that  the  Church  is  not 
a  mere  class  or  description  of  persons,  but  an 
actual  society.     In  the  first  place,  it 

because  it  •'  ^  ' 

has  a  has  a  founder.     The  Church  claims, 

"""  ^^'  as  its  great  Head  and  Founder,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ :  it  ascribes  its  first  existence 
to  his  selection  and  appointment  of  members; 
and  its  principles,  and  objects,  and  rules,  have 
proceeded  from  his  divine  wisdom.  It  was  be- 
gun in  the  Apostles,  whom  He  expressly  chose 
to  be  witnesses  of  all  He  did  and  suffered  upon 
earth,  and  to  Avhom  He  fully  taught  the  great 
truths  of  his  holy  faith  ;^  and  in  testimony  of 
this  it  has  received  his  name.  It  is  the  Church 
of  Christ.  He  is  the  Head  of  his  Body,  the 
Church ;  and  from  Him  the  whole  family  in  hea- 
ven and  earth  is  named. ^ 

and  mode  of  Again,  the  Church  has  an  initia- 
initiation,  j-^j-y  sacrament.  Baptism  was  by  our 
Lord  Himself  appointed  to  be  the  sacred  rite  of 
admission  into  the  number  of  his  disciples,  the 

1  Luke  xxiv.  45 — 4S.    Acts  i.  2. 

2  Rom.  xvi.  16.     Col.  i.  18.    Eph.  iii.  15. 


IS  A  SOCIETY.  19 

door  into  his  Church.  "Go  ye,"  was  the  com- 
mission to  the  Apostles,  "and  teach"  (or  "make 
disciples  of")  "all  nations,  baptizing  them  in 
the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost."  ^  The  believer  in  Baptism  is 
then  first  received  into  covenant  with  God;  and 
all  the  promises  of  forgiveness  of  sins  which 
are  made  to  those  who  believe,  are  then  per- 
sonally applied  and  sealed.  ^  Hence  the  first 
preaching  of  the  Apostles  was,  "Repent,  and  be 
baptized,"  as  declaring  to  all  who  embraced  the 
faith  which  they  proclaimed,  that  Baptism  was 
the  first  step,  w^hich  need  not  afterwards  be 
repeated,  whereby  they  might  enter  into  the 
inheritance  of  the  promises  of  God.  Now  if 
as  soon  as  an  unbeliever  becomes  a  convert  to 
the  faith  of  Christ,  he  hy  that  act  of  conversion 
alone  becomes  a  member  of  the  Church,  there 
would  be  no  use  in  this  appointed  mode  of  in- 
corporatmg  members,  no  meaning  in  this  holy 
ordinance.  Yea,  why  might  not  the  mere  be- 
liever, claiming  to  be  a  member  of  the  Church 
on  the  ground  of  his  belief  in  the  Christian 
faith,  assert  at  once  the  full  privilege  of  being 
partaker  of  the  mysteries  of  the  Lord's  Supper.? 

»Matt.  xxviii.  19.        sjyiark  xvi.  16.     Eph.  i.  13. 


20  THE    CHURCH    OF    CHRIST 

So  that  the  fact  of  there  being  an  initiatory- 
sacrament  is  a  plain  evidence  that  the  number 
of  those  among  whom  it  admits  any  person  is 
an  actual  body  or  society. 

But  let  us  suppose  the  objection  to  be  raised, 
that  Baptism  is  initiatory,  not  absolutely  into 
the  Catholic  Church,  but  into  some  particular 
Church  or  community  of  believers  5  and  that  it 
cannot  consequently  be  adduced  as  a  proof  that 
the  Church  Catholic  is  a  society,  but  only  that 
particular  Churches  are  societies,  which  none 
would  be  disposed  to  deny.  Such  a  view  of  the 
nature  of  Baptism  would  be  wholly  at  variance 
with  the  Apostolic  declaration,  that  there  is 
One  Baptism;  for  it  would  increase  the  number 
of  Baptisms  to  the  number  of  the  particular 
Churches  into  which  the  holy  rite  admitted 
new  members.  None,  it  is  hoped,  would  seri- 
ously admit  such  a  degradation  of  this  sacra- 
ment from  its  exalted  dignity  and  rank  of  being 
an  act  of  admission  into  Christ^s  holy  Church 
Universal,  into  a  mere  act  of  admission  into  a 
local  community,  conferring  membership  in  that 
particular  community  alone.  It  is  opposed  to 
the  spirit  of  the  entire  service  of  Baptism,  as 
used  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  other 
Churches  throughout  the  world :  and  members 


IS    A    SOCIETY.  21 

of  one  religious  denomination  will  often  have 
their  children  baptized  by  ministers  of  another, 
because  they  look  upon  the  Sacrament — and 
they  do  so  justly — as  one  whereby  they  are 
grafted  not  exclusively  into  some  particular 
Church,  but  absolutely  into  the  Church  Univer- 
sal. Indeed  this  Catholic  character  of  Baptism 
is  admitted  by  most  denominations  in  the  very 
principles  upon  which  their  societies  are  con- 
ducted. For  admission  into  the  society  of  many 
of  the  ordinary  denominations  must  in  many 
cases  be  wholly  distinct  from  the  time  and  cere- 
mony of  Christian  Baptism.  The  individual  is 
baptized  perhaps  in  infancy — in  riper  years  he 
enters  into  their  society :  and  so  again,  if  any 
one  leaves  the  sect  of  which  he  has  hitherto 
been  a  member,  and  joins  himself  to  another, 
he  is  not  by  most  parties  required  again  to 
receive  the  form  of  Baptism,  but  some  other 
rite  of  admission  is  deemed  sufficient  to  intro- 
duce him  into  the  new  fraternity.  Thus  Bap- 
tism must  be,  and  by  all  parties  is  admitted  to 
be,  an  incorporating  not  merely  into  a  particu- 
lar body  of  believers,  but  into  the  Church  at 
large;  and  as  such  it  may  fairly  be  placed  in 
the  list  of  the  marks  whereby  the  Church  is 


22  THE    CHURCH    OF    CHRIST 

distinguished  from  a  mere  class,  and  shown  to 
be  in  itself  a  real  and  actual  society, 
and  a  sacra-  Again,  we  infer  that  the  Church 
ment  of  fei-  is  a  society,  because  it  possesses  an 
^^'  especial  sacrament  of  fellowship  in 
the  Holy  Eucharist:  this  holy  communion  is 
the  "mystery  of  peace,"  and  the  "sacrament  of 
society  " — an  act  of  religious  testifying  and  rati- 
fying of  an  union  existing  among  the  members. 
"We  being  many,"  says  St.  Paul,  "are  one 
bread  and  cne  body,  for  we  are  all  partakers  of 
that  one  bread."  And  that  the  union  or  society 
to  which  this  Sacrament  testifies  is  not  of  a 
local  or  party  character  only,  is  plainly  evinced 
in  the  nature  of  the  holy  rite  itself :  it  directs  us 
to  the  one  great  Head  of  his  Church,  in  whom 
is  neither  barbarian,  Scythian,  bond,  or  free. 
It  may  indeed,  in  an  especial  manner,  kindle 
love  and  harmony  among  those  who  personally 
communicate  together;  but  it  must  likewise  be 
felt  and  prized  as  a  participation  with  a  body 
more  widely  diffused — the  mystical  body  of 
Christ,  which  is  the  blessed  company  of  all 
faithful  people. 

and  officers  Again,  the  Church  has  its  minis- 
and  rules.  ^gj.g  j^^^^j  ofHcers — its  discipline  and 
powers  of  excommunication.     It  does  not  con- 


IS    A    SOCIETY.  23 

sist  of  isolated,  unconnected  individuals,  but  of 
members  in  a  mutual  relation  to  each  other,  of 
an  organization  of  pastors  and  flocks.  St.  Paul 
therefore  writes,  "God  hath  set  some  in  the 
Church,  first  Apostles,  secondarily  prophets, 
thirdly  teachers." '  To  Timothy,  as  one  bear- 
ing authority  in  the  Church,  the  same  Apostle 
gives  direction  to  award  honours  to  desendng 
elders,  to  try  offenders,  to  ordain  to  the  office 
of  the  Christian  ministry,  to  reprove,  to  rebuke, 
to  exhort;  while  others  he  exhorts  to  obey 
them  that  have  the  rule  over  them,  and  sub- 
mit themselves,  "for,"  says  he,  "they  watch 
for  your  souls,  as  they  that  must  give  an  ac- 
count." *  The  two  sacraments,  also,  of  which 
we  have  already  spoken,  in  themselves  neces- 
sarily unply  the  existence  of  officers  in  the 
Church,  and  of  an  authority  to  admit  or  to 
reject  those  who  would  partake  of  its  privi- 
leges. It  may  be  demonstrated  fi-om  them,  that 
these  ministers  and  officers,  however  limited 
may  be  their  individual  jurisdiction,  are  yet 
ministers  (in  their  respective  order,  as  bishops, 
priests,  or  deacons)  of  the  Church  at  large;  for 
the  Sacraments  are  sacraments  of  the  Church 

M  Cor  xii.  28.    Eph.  iv.  11.    Rom.  xii.  6— 8. 
2Heb.  xiii.  17.     1  Thess.  v.  12,  13. 


24  THE    CHURCH    OF    CHRIST 

Catholic,  and  consequently  they  by  whom  they 
are  administered,  must  be  ministers  of  the 
Church  Catholic.  The  authority  of  each  law- 
ful minister,  although  exercised  in  one  congre- 
gation only,  is  not  confined  to  that  particular 
Church,  but  extends  to  the  whole  body.  Thus 
Baptism  being,  as  it  has  been  already  shown, 
the  way  of  incorporation,  not  into  a  particu- 
lar Church  only,  but  into  the  whole  body  of 
Christ — he  who  lawfully  administers  Baptism 
is  a  minister  of  the  whole  Church.  The  Holy 
Communion  is  an  act  of  fellowship  wdth  the 
blessed  company  of  all  faithful  people;  he, 
therefore,  who  has  the  right  to  admit  or  to 
excommunicate,  must  be  a  minister  of  the  same 
blessed  company.  By  these  marks  we  know 
the  Church  to  be  a  real  society ;  not  merely  as 
limited  to  local  communities,  not  merely  over 
the  individuals  who  are  co-worshippers  in  one 
congi'egation,  but  as  one  universal  body,  she 
has  her  officers,  her  corporate  powers,  her  dis- 
cipline, her  organization.  The  jurisdiction  of 
her  ministers  may  be  limited  to  a  congregation, 
a  parish,  or  a  diocese,  or  a  province,  but  their 
official  acts  are  the  acts  of  the  Church  at  large 
— themselves  are  the  ministers  in  the  temple  of 
God. 


IS    A    SOCIETY.  25 

Such  are  the  marks  by  which  we  Scriptural 
discern  the  Church  to  be  an  actual  profj^^a"^ 
society,  as  distinguished  from  a  mere  society, 
class;  a  reality,  and  not  a  vague,  unreal  ab- 
straction;^ a  corporation,  and  not  a  mere  de- 
scription of  individuals.  Let  us  briefly  notice, 
that  many  of  the  metaphors  under  which  the 
Church  is  spoken  of  in  Scripture,  expressly 
denote  this  its  corporate  character.  It  is  de- 
scribed as  Abraham's  seed;^  as  the  household 
of  faith; 3  as  the  family  of  God;*  as  a  city,  or 
body  of  citizens;^  as  a  fold;^  as  one  bread  and 
one  body;"^  as  a  temple;*  as  the  kingdom  of 
heaven; 9  as  the  branches  in  the  vine.^"  In  all 
these  various  metaphors  we  find  one  common 
feature,  that  of  combination  of  their  respective 
parts;  and  the  especial  idea  which  they  are 
intended  to  convey,  must  be  this  associated 
corporate  character  of  the  Church,  as  one  body 
fitly  joined  together  and  compacted.  If  the 
Church  were  a  class  of  people  merely,  it  would 
have  sufficed  to  have  called  them  men  of  faith; 

» See  note  1,  at  the  end.  ^Gal.  iii.  29. 

3Gal.  vi.  10.     Eph.  ii.  19.  ^Eph.  iii.  15. 

5Eph.  ii.  19.     Heb.  xii.  22.  ejohn  x.  16. 

7  1  Cor.  X.  17.  8  1  Pet.  ii.  5. 

9 Matt.  xiii.  '"John  xv.  5. 
3 


26  THE    CHURCH    OF    CHRIST 

but  they  are  a  society^  and  therefore  are  more 
appropriately  called  Abraham's  seed.  If  it  were 
a  class  merely,  it  would  have  sufficed  to  have 
called  its  members  living  stones;  but  being  a 
society,  the  Apostle  completes  his  metaphor  by 
adding,  "built  up  a  spiritual  temple."  In  like 
manner,  though  individually  they  are  sheep  of 
Christ — the  servants  of  God — grains  of  corn  in 
the  heavenly  garner,  or  the  separate  members 
of  Christ — yet  as  being  a  Church,  as  viewed 
collectively,  the  scriptural  emblems  appropri- 
ately convey  the  further  idea  of  an  union  exist- 
ing among  them,  and  describe  them  as  members 
organized  into  one  body,  grains  combined  into 
one  bread,  servants  forming  together  the  king- 
dom of  God,  or  constituted  as  his  united  house- 
hold, and  sheep  folded  under  one  Shepherd,  and 
in  one  fold. 

Such  are  some  of  the  simple  yet  striking  me- 
taphors under  which  the  Church  of  Christ  is 
spoken  of  in  Holy  Scripture ;  and  from  these,  as 
well  as  from  the  appeal  to  the  actual  nature  of 
the  Church  itself,  its  origin,  its  sacraments,  its 
ministry,  we  must  infer  that  the  Church  is  not 
a  mere  class,  but  indeed  an  actual  society.  Con- 
sequently, both  of  the  opinions  respecting  the 
Church  must  fall  to  the  ground,  in  which  it  is 


IS    A    SOCIETY.  27 

held  to  be  a  class  only.  It  can  be  neither  a 
mere  class  of  individuals,  according  to  the  one 
opinion ;  nor  a  mere  class  of  societies,  according 
to  the  other.  It  is  something  more :  it  is  a  body- 
knit  together,  and  united.  It  is  itself  a  society, 
a  real  actual  community,  to  be  discerned  and 
known  as  any  other  society  may,  and  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  all  others  by  its  own  peculiar 
constitution,  and  history,  and  origin,  and  objects. 
Here    the   present    chapter    miffht 

^  ^  °       The  second 

have  been  brought  to  a  close.     But  I  opinion  fur- 
am   unwilling   to   pass    on    without  cusse^d!" 
making  a  few  observations   relating 
more  expressly  to  the  second  definition,  which 
describes  the  Church  as  all  societies  of  believers. 
Hitherto  we  have  only  viewed  this  definition  as 
it  falls  into  the  same  error  as  the  other  rejected 
definition  falls  into,  namely,  that  of  making  the 
Church  the  name   of  a  class.     It  approaches, 
however,  nearer  the  truth,  and  being  thus  more 
likely  to  mislead,  requires  that  its  peculiar  defi- 
ciencies   should   be   separately   noticed.      The 
definition  now  spoken  of  has  this  very  The  Church 
important  recommendation,  that  it  re-  Catholic  not 

^  '  distinct  from 


jects  the  absurdity  of  supposing  that  particular 

it  is  possible  to  belong  to  the  Church 

in  the  abstract,  without  belonging  to  the  Church 


28  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST 

in  some  particular  portion.  To  imagine,  indeed, 
the  Catholic  Church  to  be  any  thing  distinct 
from  the  particular  societies,  or  churches,  which 
compose  it,  would  be  as  absurd  as  to  imagine 
the  human  body  to  be  something  distinct  from 
its  members.  It  would  be  like  asserting  that 
England  was  a  territory  distinct  from  the  coun- 
ties which  compose  it,  so  that  a  man  could  be  a 
native  of  England,  and  yet  not  a  native  of  some 
particular  district.  I  remember  being  told  by  a 
religiously  disposed  man,  that  he  professed  the 
principles  of  the  "Baptists,"  and  always  attended 
their  place  of  meeting,  although  he  had  not 
joined  their  "Church."  He  belonged  (he  said) 
to  no  "  Church."  When  he  was  asked  whether 
he  thought  he  was  a  member  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  he  answered,  with  much  surprise,  that  he 
considered  that  all  true  believers  were  such.  So 
that  here  is  a  man  who  belonged  to  the  Church 
of  Christ,  but  yet  was  not  in  any  particular  part 
of  it,  as  if,  to  repeat  the  illustration  just  before 
given,  a  man  could  be  in  England  and  not  in 
some  particular  county.  He  could  understand 
how  the  mere  profession  of  the  tenets  of  the 
Baptists  did  not  make  him  a  member  of  their 
society,  but  yet  thought  that  the  mere  profession 
of  the  faith  of  a  Christian  was  enouo^h  to  make 


IS  A   SOCIETY. 


29 


him  a  member  of  the  Church  Catholic.  He  had 
a  definite  notion  of  the  "  Chmxh  of  the  Baptists ;" 
but  when  he  came  to  speak  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  he  took  it  to  be  a  mere  abstraction  with- 
out parts,  and  thought  that  he  could  be  a  mem- 
ber of  it  in  the  general,  although  not  yet  in  any- 
definite  branch. 

Rejecting  this  absurdity,  the  defi-  The  particu- 
nition  which  we  are  now  considerinor,  lar  churches 

®^  must  he  asso- 

rightly  acknowledges  that  something  ciated  into 
more  is  required  in  order  to  consti-  °"^" 
tute  Church-membership,  beside  the  being  sim- 
ply a  believer.  It  says,  the  members  of  Christ 
must  be  associated  members,  incorporated  into 
some  company  of  believers.  Thus  it  maintains 
this  important  truth,  that  the  idea  of  the  Church 
implies  an  actual  joining  together.  The  believer 
must  be  associated  to  be  in  the  Church ;  as  the 
leaf  must  be  on  a  bough,  in  order  to  its  being 
reckoned  part  of  the  tree.  But  then  it  stops 
here;  it  rests  satisfied  with  having  the  individu- 
als combined  into  companies,  while  these  com- 
panies still  remain  distinct  and  separate  from 
each  other.  The  Church  is  still  no  more  than 
an  abstraction,  though  it  be  of  bodies  of  men 
and  not  of  individuals.  There  is  just  enough  of 
the  truth  admitted,  to  show  that  we  must  admit 


30  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST 

more.  For  if  any  joining  together  is  requisite, 
there  must  be  a  complete  joining  together  of  the 
whole.  It  is  not  sufficient  that  the  privates  be 
formed  into  battalions,  the  battalions  must  also 
be  marshalled  as  an  army.  It  is  not  sufficient 
that  the  leaf  be  on  the  bough,  the  bough  must 
be  on  the  trunk :  if  the  bough  happen  to  be  dis- 
severed, the  leaf  which  adheres  to  it  is  in  no 
wise  more  on  the  tree  than  the  dry  leaf  which 
is  fluttering  about  by  itself  in  the  wind.  And 
in  like  manner,  in  order  to  be  in  the  Church,  it 
is  not  sufficient  to  belong  to  a  company  of  be- 
lievers, to  be  an  associated  or  incorporated  mem- 
ber of  a  Christian  community,  unless  that  com- 
munity is  itself  a  part  of  the  Church,  and  in  some 
sense  forms  with  it  but  one  society. 

We  do  not  then  deny  the  existence  of  parti- 
cular churches,  or  the  necessity  of  belonging  to 
one,  if  we  are  members  at  all  of  the  Church 
Catholic.  The  leaf  which  adheres  to  the  tree, 
must  be  in  particular  adherence  to  its  own  re- 
spective branch.  It  is  an  absurdity  to  suppose 
that  the  Church  Catholic  can  exist  distinct  from 
particular  churches :  but  then  we  must  further 
maintain,  that  being  composed  of  such  particular 
churches,  it  is  moreover  a  real  society.  From 
all  the  evidence  which  has  been  advanced,  we 


IS  A  SOCIETY.  31 

must  infer  that  it  is  not  a  mere  genus  compre- 
hending other  societies  under  one  general  name ; 
it  is  itself  a  society  of  societies,  combining  the 
many  communities  of  which  it  consists  into  one 
united  body.^ 

The  Church  of  Christ  is  not  the  aggregate,  or 
whole  number  of  believers,  but  it  is  the  whole 
number  of  its  members,  of  those  believers  who 
have  been  incorporated  into  it: — it  is  not  the 
aggregate,  or  whole  number  of  societies  of  be- 
lievers, but  it  is  the  whole  number  of  those 
societies  of  believers  which  are  its  parts  and 
branches.  For  the  whole  Church  is  an  organi- 
zation, and  tliose  individual  believers  who  be- 
long to  it,  and  those  societies  or  churches  of 
believers  which  belong  to  it,  must  be  individuals 
and  societies  formed  into  one  consistent  whole, 
by  some  common  uniting  bond. 

1  Note  2. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HOW  THE  CHURCH   OF  CHRIST  IS  ONE. 

IF  the  reader  has  gone  along  with  tlie  argu- 
ment in  the  preceding  chapter,  and  feels  satis- 
fied that  the  Church  is  a  society,  he  has  already 
an  argument  that  the  Church  is  one.  He  already, 
therefore,  feels  that  there  is  a  reality  and  force 
of  meaning  in  the  Apostle  Paul's  declaration, 
"Ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus :"  and  he  can 
enter  into  the  general  spirit  of  our  Saviour's 
beautiful  prayer,  "Neither  pray  I  for  these  alone, 
but  for  them  which  shall  believe  on  me  tlirough 
their  word ;  that  they  all  may  be  one,  as  thou, 
Father,  art  in  me  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also 
may  be  one  in  us,"  The  Church  is  one — not 
merely  ought  to  be  one — should  strive  to  be  one 
— but  is  one.  The  Church  is  one,  not  merely 
because  it  happens  not  to  be  more  than  one,  but 
because  it  cannot  be  more  than  one.     "Ecclesia 


HOW  THE   CHURCH  OF  CHRIST  IS  OXE.       33 

una  est  et  dividi  non  potest,"  says  St.  Cyprian.  * 
The  Church  is  one,  and  cannot  be  divided. — It  is 
one  essentially,  even  as  God  is  one. 

But  we  require  to  know  in  what  this  unity 
consists.  We  look  round,  perhaps,  upon  the 
countries  professing  Christianity,  and  seeing 
everywhere  many  actual  divisions  among  those 
who  are  called  Christians,  and  much  want  of 
unanimity,  and  little  intercommunion  both  be- 
tween individuals  and  between  Churches,  we  are 
at  a  loss  to  know  where  is  the  one  society  of 
Christ's  Church  Catholic,  or  to  find  a  clue  by 
which  we  may  assure  ourselves  that  we  are  one 
in  that  Church.  Knowing  its  essential  oneness, 
and  at  the  same  time  seeing  the  actual  disordered 
state  of  Christians,  we  begin  perhaps  to  suspect 
that  the  Church  must  be  some  very  small  body ; 
and  wonder  why,  with  all  its  comprehensiveness 
of  design,  and  its  universal  adaptation  to  the 
wants  of  man,  it  should  have  remained  so  small 
and  so  undistinguished  a  body.  But  it  is  not 
thus :  on  the  contrary,  when  we  discover  what 
is  the  true  principle  of  unity  in  the  Church,  and 
apply  that  principle  as  the  criterion  by  which  to 
ascertain  which  are  actually  branches  and  limbs 

1  Ep.  74.     (Ed.Tauchn.) 


34 


HOW  THE  CHURCH 


in  that  unity,  instead  of  finding  the  Church  to 
be  only  a  small  section  of  professed  believers, 
we  shall  find  that  it  includes  within  its  pale  the 
vast  majority;  and  that  it  may,  not  only  on  the 
ground  of  its  design  and  capabilities,  but  even 
on  the  score  of  its  actual  extent,  justly  claim  to 
be  called  Catholic,  one  everywhere. 

Our  present  inquiry  then  is.  What  is  that  prin- 
ciple of  unity,  whereby  in  the  Church  we  are 
not  separate  independent  believers,  or  separate 
independent  societies  of  believers,  but  bound  to- 
gether in  one  body  ?  in  what  consists  that  unity 
which  brings  us  alltogether,  and  makes  us  all 


one 


Unity  of  the  In  the  first  place,  it  is  plain  that  all 
Church  con-  Q^^ist's  members  in  his  Church  are 

sists  not  in 

meeting  to-  not  Considered  one,  as  a  congi*egation 
get  161,  niight   be  called  one,  because    they 

meet  all  together  in  one  place.  At  one  time  it 
was  possible  for  the  Church  to  do  this.  When 
the  number  of  the  disciples  whom  Christ  left 
behind  Him  in  the  world  consisted  only  of 
"about  one  hundred  and  twenty  names,"  then 
they  could,  and  did  actually  all  meet  together; 
as,  for  example,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  they 
"were  all  with  one  accord  in  one  place."*     But 

'  Actsii.  1. 


OF  CHRIST  IS  OXE.  35 

ever  since  that  day,  an  assembly  of  the  entire 
Church  together  has  been  impossible :  its  num- 
bers have  become  too  great  to  admit  of  such  an 
unity  as  this.  Christ  had  intended  that  the  so- 
ciety which  He  instituted  should  not  be  confined 
to  Jerusalem,  but  that  it  should  extend  from  city 
to  city,  and  from  village  to  village,  from  nation 
to  nation,  and  from  country  to  country,  till  all 
the  world  should  be  fdled  with  the  knowledge 
of  God  and  of  the  way  of  salvation.  Accord- 
ingly it  has  been  thus  extending.  Gentiles,  as 
w^ell  as  Jews,  have  received  the  religion  of  the 
Gospel.  The  members  of  Christ  may  be  found 
in  countries  far  distant  from  each  other — to  the 
east  and  to  the  west,  with  the  wide  sea  between 
them.  It  is  plain,  then,  that  the  unity  of  the 
Church  consists  not  in  the  whole  assembling 
together  in  one  place;  and  unless  Christ  has 
prayed  in  vain,  '•'•that  they  all  may  l)e  one,"  men 
may  be  of  the  one  body,  and  united  together 
within  the  one  fold,  who  have  never  met,  whose 
very  names  and  existence  may  be  unknown  to 
each  other. 

Since,  then,  Christ's  members  can- 
not in  sinii- 

not  all  meet  together,  and  so  be  one,  lantyof 
yet  (2ndly)  may  not  their  unity  con-  JJ^^"^'  ^""^ 
sist  in  their  all  using  the  same  sacra- 


36  HOW  THE  CHURCH 

ments,  and  services,  and  forms  of  religion,  al- 
though it  be  at  different  places  ?  But  to  this  it 
must  be  replied,  that  similarity  can  never  con- 
stitute unity.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  Catholic 
minds  will  experience  pleasure  in  reflecting  how 
far  they  are  praying,  as  it  were,  with  one  heart 
and  with  one  mouth,  with  their  fellow  believers, 
although  widely  dispersed;  and  will  delight  to 
think  that  they  are  using  the  very  words  of 
prayer  and  praise,  in  which  holy  men  of  old 
have  joined,  who  have  now  entered  into  their 
rest:  but,  at  the  same  time,  this  uniformity  of 
services  is  rather  a  sort  of  evidence  and  exem- 
plification of  the  unity  of  the  Church,  than  the 
matter  in  which  that  unity  really  consists;  for 
there  may  be  no  unity  subsisting  even  where 
the  same  external  rituals,  and  forms,  and  disci- 
pline are  adhered  to,  just  as  regimentals  may  be 
assumed  and  worn  by  men  who  have  no  con- 
nexion with  the  troops  to  whom  the  dress  pro- 
perly belongs.  On  the  other  hand,  there  may 
be  unity  between  churches,  where  different  ser- 
vices and  customs  prevail.  For  if  we  strictly 
consider  it,  it  is  no  more  possible  for  the  Church, 
spread,  as  we  know  that  it  is,  over  the  whole 
world,  to  worship  in  precisely  the  same  forms, 
than  it  is  for  them   to  assemble  in  the  same 


OF  CHRIST  IS  OXE.  37 

place.  The  language  spoken  by  different  na- 
tions is  not  the  same;  so  that  the  words  must 
vary :  the  expressions  in  use  in  different  coun- 
tries are  not  the  same,  they  have,  moreover,  dif- 
ferent civil  rulers  and  bishops  to  pray  for,  so 
that  the  style  and  matter  likewise  of  their  reli- 
gious services  must  vary.  Hence,  from  the 
necessity  of  the  case,  it  is  plain  that  the  unity 
of  the  Church  does  not  consist  in  a  mere  simi- 
larity of  fonns  and  sendees  and  rites.  Ceremo- 
nies may  be  changed  according  to  the  diversities 
of  countries,  times,  and  men's  manners,  consist- 
ently with  God's  word,  and  yet  the  real  oneness 
of  the  Church  remain  unaffected. 

3rdly.  But  perhaps  it  will  be  said,  not  in  simi- 
"The  mere  outward  forms,  it  is  true,  larity  of  faith, 
are  nothing;  that  which  makes  the  whole  Church 
throughout  the  world  one,  that  which  constitutes 
its  unity,  is  the  common  profession  of  the  great 
and  fundamental  doctrines  of  our  holy  faith." 
In  that  form  of  sound  words,  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  our  profession  of  faith  was  made  when 
we  were  admitted  in  Baptism  into  the  Church 
of  Christ :  none  can  be  a  member  of  the  Church, 
even  in  name,  unless  he  has  professed  to  hold 
the  fundamental  doctrines  therein  contained,  and 
no  church  can  continue  a  sound  church  except 
4 


38  THE  CHURCH 

as  holding  uncorriipt  the  same  truths.  But  no 
resemblance  or  likeness,  consisting  in  the  com- 
mon profession  of  the  same  faith,  can  constitute 
the  unity  of  the  Church.  The  Church  has  al- 
ready been  proved  to  be  a  society,  and  the  unity 
into  which  we  are  inquiring  must  be  an  unity 
which  combines  it  as  a  society ;  but  similarity  is 
the  ground  upon  which  things  are  referred  to  a 
particular  class^  so  that  if  all  the  Church's  unity 
is  to  be  resolved  into  this,  it  wc3fuld  cease  to  be 
a  society  at  all.  Strictly  speaking,  as  it  was  ob- 
served under  the  preceding  head,  similarity  and 
unity  are  two  distinct  things,  and  the  former  may 
exist  without  the  latter.  If  we  observed  a  num- 
ber of  buildings  precisely  resembling  each  other 
in  form,  materials,  Stc.  we  might  speak  of  them 
as  having  unity  of  design,  but  we  could  not  say 
there  was  unity  of  house. 

There  is  a  story  told  of  a  man,  who,  wishing 
to  keep  bees,  set  himself  to  catch  as  many  as 
he  could  among  the  flowers,  and  then  shut 
them  up  together  in  a  hive.  None  can  deny 
but  that  they  precisely  resembled  one  another 
in  appearance  and  nature;  there  was  similarity, 
but  yet  notwithstanding  there  was  no  bond  of 
unity  existing  among  them,  they  were  not  a 
stock.    In  like  manner  a  man  may  be  a  believer 


OF  CHRIST  IS  ONE. 


39 


in  the  great  articles  of  the  Christian  faith,  and 
so  far  exactly  resemble  other  true  believers, 
and  yet  may  not,  perhaps,  be  one  with  them  in 
the  body  of  Christ.  There  may  be  those  who 
individually  appear  like  the  sheep  of  the  good 
Shepherd,  who  yet  are  not  within  his  fold. 

Thus,  then,  we  cannot  consider  similarity, 
whether  it  be  in  outward  forms,  or  even  in  the 
fundamental  matter  of  faith,  as  constituting  that 
unity  of  the  Church  for  which  we  seek.  It  is 
not  meant,  (be  it  remembered,)  that  it  is  unes- 
sential that  there  should  be  one  faith  to  each 
and  all,  and  the  same  holy  sacraments  duly  ad- 
ministered; there  must  be  one  faith,  and  one 
baptism,  as  well  as  one  God  and  one  Lord :  nor 
is  it  meant  that  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference 
that  we  join  in  a  holy  uniformity  with  one 
mouth  and  one  voice,  sending  up  our  common 
adorations  to  our  Heavenly  Father.  These 
things,  it  is  simply  affirmed,  do  not  constitute 
and  effect  that  condition  which  St.  Paul  de- 
scribes when  he  says,  "Ye  are  all  one  in 
Christ   Jesus." 

But,  4thly,  it    is    sometimes   as-  not  in  una- 
serted,  that  the  unity  of  the  Church  "^"^^^J' 
means  peace  and  haniiony  among  Christians; 
that  it  is  Christian  love  or  charity  which  con- 


40  THE    CHURCH 

stitutes  its  unity.  But  even  this  claim  must 
fail.  We  often,  indeed,  use  the  word  in  the 
sense  which  is  here  given,  but  Avhen  we  speak 
of  the  unity  (or  unanimity)  which  cliarity  pro- 
duces, we  mean  something  very  different  from 
that  which  makes  one  the  whole  body  of  Christ. 
This  may  be  made  evident  by  many  considera- 
tions. The  unity  which  charity  produces  has 
for  its  contrary  hatred,  and  rancour,  and  jea- 
lousy; the  contrary  to  the  unity  which  we  are 
now  discussing,  is  plurality.  The  unity  wliich 
charity  produces  can  be  exercised  only  towards 
the  living;  the  unity  w^hich  joins  together  the 
Church,  is  one  which  unites  the  living  mem- 
bers and  the  departed  members — all  in  every 
place,  and  of  every  time,  who  having  been  once 
received  into  the  family  of  God,  have  preserved 
unbroken  that  sacred  fellowship.  The  unity  of 
love  and  charity  is  a  grace  which  we  may  pray 
for,  as  we  do,  for  example,  in  the  prayer  for 
the  Church  militant,  and  in  other  prayers  of 
our  Church ;  the  unity  which  forms  our  present 
inquiry  cannot,  strictly  speaking,  be  a  subject 
for  prayer,  because  the  Church  cannot  exist 
except  as  one.  Again :  the  distinction  will,  per- 
haps, be  rendered  more  evident  if  we  consider 
that  the  unity  of  peace  and  charity  may,  and 


OF    CHRIST    IS    OXE. 


41 


ought  to  join  us  with  all  mankind,  with  the 
Pagan  and  the  Jew,  the  Mohammedan  and  the 
idolater,  with  Avhom  we  cannot  have  that  unity 
M-hich  makes  the  Christian  Church  to  be  called 
one.  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thy- 
self :"  this  is  a  rule  which  extends  to  all,  and 
we  may  not  stand  to  ask  the  question,  Who  is 
my  neighbour?  But  the  Church  is  but  a  por- 
tion taken  out  of  the  world,  and  the  bond 
which  unites  its  members  among  themselves 
must  be  one  which  distinguishes  and  separates 
them  from  others,  and  cannot  extend  itself  in- 
discriminately to  all.  And  then,  again,  if  it 
were  peace  and  unanimity  which  constitutes 
the  essential  unity  of  the  Church,  would  there 
not  be  reason  to  fear  lest  that  unity  now  no 
longer  exist?  There  have  been  too  often 
breaches  of  charity-  within  the  Church : — there 
was  contention  even  between  St.  Paul  and  St. 
Barnabas,  so  sharp  that  they  departed  asunder 
the  one  from  the  other ;  ^  there  have  been  rival 
parties  each  condemning  the  tenets  and  doc- 
trines of  the  other  wdth  much  heat  and  bitter- 
ness of  spirit,  opposite  factions  rending  the 
Church  from  motives  of  ambition  and  love  of 

1  Acts  XV.  39. 


42  THE    CHURCH 

worldly  power;  while  between  the  respective 
portions  of  the  Church  in  different  countries, 
friendly  feelings  have  been  destroyed,  and  visi-  ' 
ble  communion  has  ceased  to  be  maintained. 
Is  it  not  plain,  that  if  the  essential  oneness  of 
tlie  Church  depended  on  its  harmony,  and  una- 
nimity, and  love,  that  tliat  oneness  is  lost,  and 
that  the  Church  itself  is,  in  consequence,  shat- 
tered and  destroyed  ?  But  we  have  the  predic- 
tion and  promise  of  Christ  himself,  that  the 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it.  The 
Church  must  stand  for  ever,  and  stand  in  that 
intrinsic  unity  without  which  she  cannot  be.  It 
is  sad  indeed  to  know  that  such  discords  and 
variances,  and  rendings,  have  existed,  yea,  and 
do  exist,  among  those  who  ought  to  be  of  one 
heart  and  of  one  soul,  united  in  a  holy  bond  of 
truth  and  peace,  and  faith  and  charity.  They 
involve  us  in  a  fearful  amount  of  guilt,  as  family 
hatred  and  civil  wars  are  the  more  atrocious, 
because  they  take  place  between  those  who 
are  bound  by  ties  of  nature  to  unitedness  and 
peace;  but  as  hostile  citizens  and  brothers  are 
still  one  in  blood,  so  may  there  be  found  a  real 
oneness  in  the  Church,  unaffected  by  the  vari- 
ances, and  distinct  from  the  harmony  of  its 
members.* 

»  Note  .S. 


OF    CHRIST    IS    0.\E. 


43 


5th.  Nor,  again,  does  the  principle  not  in  supre- 
of  the  unity  of  the  Church  consist  o,\^J^he"ad 
in  its  being  all  under  the  superinten-  bishop, 
dence  of  one  head  bishop.  This  is  the  ground 
of  unity  wliich  is  maintained  by  those  who  limit 
the  Church  of  Christ  to  such  only  as  acknow- 
ledge the  supremacy  of  the  Bishop  or  Pope  of 
Rome,  the  doctrine  which  is  properly  called 
popery.  Now  that  this  supremacy  cannot  be 
any  bond  of  unity  essential  to  the  Church,  is 
plain  from  this,  that  the  Church  existed  many 
centuries  without  its  being  so  much  as  claimed. 
For  it  was  not  authorized  by  any  institution 
of  our  Lord :  we  read,  indeed,  of  an  occasion 
when,  upon  his  confession  of  faith,  St.  Peter 
received  an  especial  blessing  and  commission, 
and  we  know  that  the  first  converts  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost  w^ere  made  through  his  preaching; 
but  these  circumstances,  and  others  which  the 
Romanists  advance,  were  not  deemed  by  the 
early  Church  a  sufficient  reason  for  constituting 
him  or  his  successors  universal  Bishops,  or  the 
Church  of  Rome  mistress  of  all  churches.  For 
our  Lord  chose  twelve  as  his  disciples,  and  not 
one  only.  They  were  all  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  Church  was  built.  ^    He  gave  them 

'  Compare  Matt.  xvi.  18,  with  Eph.  ii.  20,  Rev.  xxi. 
14  ;  also  John  xxi.  17,  with  Acts  xx.  28. 


44 


THE    CHURCH 


all  the  same  authority  and  the  same  commission 
in  the  administration  of  the  sacraments.*  He 
addresses  Himself  to  ten  of  the  Apostles,  when, 
after  his  resurrection.  He  said,  "As  my  Father 
hath  sent  me  even  so  send  I  you ;"  and  when 
He  breathed  on  them,  and  said,  "Receive  ye 
the  Holy  Ghost."  2  Hence  we  find  no  traces  in 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  later  inspired 
writings,  of  any  supremacy  of  one  over  the  rest 
then  recognised  in  the  Church ;  and  among  the 
canons  of  one  of  the  earliest  councils  we  find 
the  encroachment  of  one  bishop  upon  the  ten-i- 
tory  of  another  is  expressly  forbidden,  as  con- 
trary to  the  principles  of  the  Church,  and  fos- 
tering the  pride  of  worldly  ambition.^  In  short, 
the  doctrine  in  question  was  one  which  gained 
ground  by  slow  and  almost  imperceptible  de- 
grees, and  it  was  not  till  the  thirteenth  century 
that  it  received  any  formal  recognition  or  ap- 
probation of  the  Church  of  Rome  herself.  Our 
argument,  then,  is  this:  if  the  union  of  all 
Christians  under  one  supreme  head  on  earth  is 
the  principle  of  unity  which  constitutes  the  so- 
ciety of  the  Church,  then  there  was  no  Church 

'Compare  Matt.  xvi.  19,  with  Matt,  xviii.  18. 

ajohn  XX.  21—23. 

^  Council  of  Ephes.  can.  8. 


OF    CHRIST    IS    ONE. 


45 


instituted  by  Christ,  and  no  Church  for  many 
ages  after  Christ.  For  they  were  not  then  so 
united;  they  did  not  then  acknowledge  one 
supreme  Bishop  as  their  head  and  centre  of 
unity.  But  the  Church  did  exist  then,  and 
therefore  this  cannot  be  the  essential  principle 
of  its  unity.  The  Church  was  then  an  actual 
society,  and  its  members  not  being  bound  to- 
gether in  their  mutual  fellowship,  by  having 
one  head,  were  united  by  some  other  principle 
of  society  and  unity. 

But  after  all,  the  superintendence  of  one  head 
bishop  (whether  as  supreme,  or  with  the  more 
reasonable  claim  of  presiding  and  being  first 
among  the  rest)  whatever  may  be  urged  for  it, 
as  the  right  constitution  of  the  Church,  would 
not  effect  a  full  and  true  unity. '  For  in  itself 
it  gives  but  the  links  of  a  chain  laid  together 
but  not  joined.  So  long  as  any  one  individual 
pope  continues,  the  whole  body  under  him  are 
(it  is  true)  united  in  a  bond  of  unity.  But  the 
universal  bishop  must  die;  and  by  his  death 
this  unity  is  destroyed.  When  his  successor 
occupies  his  room,  there  takes  place  rather  the 
rejoining  together  the  body  of  the  Church  by  a 

1  Note  4. 


46  THE    CHURCH 

new  bond,  than  the  continuance  of  the  former 
union.  Thus  we  have,  as  it  were,  the  unity  of 
each  successive  generation  separately  among 
themselves,  but  no  unity  of  succeeding'  genera- 
tions the  one  with  the  other.  The  unity  of  the 
Church  becomes  rather  a  series  of  successive 
unities;  and  we  might  infer  that  there  have 
been  as  many  successive  churches,  as  there 
have  been  numbers  in  the  series  of  the  popes. 

But  the  unity  which  we  are  seeking  for,  the 
unity  which  in  reality  joins  the  Church  of 
Christ,  must  be  such  as  not  only  binds  in  one 
all  Christ's  members  on  earth  at  present,  but  it 
must  Ihik  them  also  with  those  that  have  pre- 
ceded, and  the  times  that  are  past.  To  render 
the  supremacy,  or  primacy,  of  one  bishop  an 
actual  continual  unity,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
combine  the  series  of  popes  by  some  system  of 
transmission  of  office  in  succession  from  one  to 
another.  Each  pope  must  appoint  and  ordain 
his  successor  in  his  office,  which  we  know  is 
not  the  mode  of  their  election.  There  must  be 
no  breaks  in  the  chain;  it  must  not  be  an  unity 
which  needs  to  be  renewed  itself  by  some  fur- 
ther link  of  connexion. 

But  the  insufficiency  of  the  one  visible  head 
to  constitute  the  principle  of  unity  to  the  Churcli, 


OF  CHRIST  IS  OXE.  47 

is  further  seen  when  we  consider  that  it  can  at 
no  time  unite  more  than  one  of  the  two  great 
portions  into  which  the  whole  body  is  divided. 
Were  it  capable  of  being  a  centre  of  oneness  to 
the  Church  on  earth,  still  it  could  establish  no 
unity  between  them  and  the  Church  in  heaven. 
And,  therefore,  even  though  one  Bishop  were 
received  by  the  whole  Church  on  earth  as  its 
visible  head,  he  would  be  the  head  of  a  part 
only  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  could  be  no 
principle  of  unity  to  the  whole.  But  the  Church 
on  earth  and  the  Church  in  heaven,  although 
widely  divided  in  place  and  circumstances,  is 
yet  but  one  church,  and  one  prmciple  of  unity 
must  unite  the  whole.  To  know  what  consti- 
tutes the  whole  Church  a  society,  truly  and 
essentially  one,  one  universally  at  all  times  and 
in  all  places,  we  must  discover  some  bond 
which  shall  not  only  unite  us  into  one  brother- 
hood on  earth,  but  shall  connect  us  also  with 
the  saints  which  reign  in  heaven,  and  make  us 
one  body  with  the  apostles  and  our  Lord. 

And  now  if  that  which  makes  the  entire 
Church  of  Christ,  as  a  society  of  believers,  to 
be  one,  is  not  the  having  one  head  on  earth,  is 
not  mere  peace  and  concord  and  unanimity,  is 
not  even  the  profession  in  common  of  the  same 


48  THE  CHURCH 

holy  faith,  is  not  a  mere  similarity  of  forms  and 
acts  of  religion,  is  not  personal  meeting  all  in 
one  place  for  united  worship — we  must  again 
ask,  In  what  then  does  this  unity  of  the  Church 
really  consist?  what  joins  together  all  Christ's 
members  now  on  earth  in  one  body,  and  more- 
over joins  them  with  all  their  brethren  who  have 
ever  gone  before ;  yea,  even  with  Christ  Himself? 
And  the  true  answer  is.  This  prin- 

Unity  of  the      .    ,  ^  .  .         ,     . 

Church  con-  ciple  ot  oncucss  cousists  HI  tlicir 
sists^inits  QYigin,  What  makes  grandsons  or 
great-grandsons  one  with  those  who 
have  preceded  them  ? — It  is  having  a  common 
ancestor.  What  makes  all  the  different  currents 
of  a  stream  to  be  one  ? — It  is  their  flowing  from 
one  spring.  What  makes  all  the  various  branches 
and  leaves  of  a  tree  to  be  but  one  together? — It 
is  the  growing  from  the  same  root.  In  like 
manner  what  makes  the  Church  of  Christ  to  be 
but  one? — It  is  the  having  one  beginning;  the 
descent  from  one  origin.  The  members  who 
composed  it  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  years  ago 
may  be  dead  and  gone;  but  by  this  principle  of 
unity  it  is  the  same  Church  now  that  it  ever  was. 
For  it  is  like  the  unity  which  subsists  in  a  regi- 
ment of  soldiers.  We  may  hear  it  said  that 
such  a  regiment  fought  in  such  battles,  and  on 


OF  CHRIST  IS  OXE. 


49 


such  occasions — battles  and  times  lon^  past, 
and  which  have  now  become  to  us  mere  matters 
of  history.  The  men  who  fought  are  not  the 
same  men  as  now  compose  the  ranks, — every 
man  may  have  been  changed;  yea,  successor 
after  successor  may  have  occupied  every  post 
since  the  events  took  place :  but  it  is  still  the 
same  regiment,  because  it  has  never  come  to  an 
end,  or  had  a  new  beginning.  It  has  gone  on, 
and  will  yet  continue,  by  successive  supplies  of 
recruits,  a  few  at  one  time,  and  a  few  more  at 
another  time,  still  retaining  its  own  name,  and 
numbers,  and  colours — its  own  trophies  of  vic- 
tory, its  own  spirit,  and  military  fame.  "The 
unity  of  the  Church,"  says  St.  Cyprian,^  "is 
preserved  in  her  origin."  And  Tertullian* 
writes,  "The  Apostles  founded  churches  in 
every  city,  from  which  churches,  others  spring- 
ing up,  have  borrowed  the  germ  of  faith,  and 
the  seeds  of  doctrine,  and  still  borrow,  in  order 
that  they  may  become  churches.  And  by  this 
they  also  are  deemed  apostolic,  as  the  offspring 
of  apostolic  churches.  Every  race  is  necessarily 
reckoned  as  belonging  to  its  origin.  Therefore 
these  numerous  and  great  churches  are  that  one 

1  De  Unit.  Eccl.  2  pe  Priescript.  Haer.  cap.  20. 

3 


50  THE  CHURCH 

prime  church  founded  by  the  Apostles,  to  which 
we  all  belong."^ 

Here  then  we  have  a  true  and  actual  unity. 
It  is  not  a  mere  likeness  or  similarity,  which 
would  constitute  us  similar  rather  than  truly 
one, — which  would  leave  our  union  only  a 
mental  conception,  a  child  of  fancy — such  as 
we  create  for  our  own  convenience,  when  we 
discern  some  points  of  resemblance  among  many 
things,  and  consequently  put  them  together  un- 
der some  general  abstract  name.  On  the  con- 
trary, we  have  here  an  actual  point  of  contact ; — 
we  are  made  one,  as  we  meet  in  one  head,  as 
we  proceed  from  one  beginning,  as  we  flow 
from  one  veritable  source. 

And  this  principle  of  unity  imparts  a  complete 
union.  It  gives  unity  to  its  sacraments,  its  min- 
istry, its  worship.  It  unites  its  members  of 
every  generation.  Ascending  to  the  very  origin, 
there  could  never  have  been  a  time  when  this 
unity  was  wanting  to  the  Church,  while,  as  be- 
ing itself  the  essence  of  the  Church's  perpetuity 
and  power  of  continuance,  it  must  last  as  long 
as  the  Church  exists.  Nor  does  this  principle 
of  unity  confine  the  Church  to  any  local  limita- 
tions.    The  unity  remains  wherever  the  Church 

'  Note  5. 


OF  CHRIST  IS  OXE.  51 

is  established,  as  a  family  may  leave  its  birth- 
place, and,  spreading  over  all  the  earth,  still 
retain  its  kindred  and  the  blood  of  the  common 
stock.  Their  line  is  gone  out  through  all  the 
earth;  yea,  as  it  becomes  transplanted  into  hea- 
ven, the  Church  loses  nothing  of  this  its  con- 
nexion with  those  who  remain  behind,  nor 
ceases  to  be  one  with  them  in  the  family  of 
Christ. 

This  principle  of  unity  is  further  one  by 
which  we  may  distinguish  which  are  the  com- 
ponent parts  of  the  Church,  and  which  are  not. 
To  be  in  the  unity  of  the  Church  is  equivalent 
in  meaning  to  being  in  the  one  Church;  and 
not  to  be  in  the  unity  of  the  Church,  is  only 
another  form  for  expressing  not  to  be  of  the  one 
Church.  And  thus  when  we  know  in  what  the 
essential  unity  of  the  Church  consists,  we  may 
ascertain  by  its  absence  or  presence  whom  the 
Church  includes.  From  one  pure  fountain  we 
may  have  seen  many  different  streams  to  flow. 
One  may  take  this  course,  and  another  that; 
their  several  lines  may  become  more  remote  the 
further  they  flow  from  their  common  source, 
their  branches  more  numerous,  and  the  scenery 
by  which  they  pass  more  diversified ;  but  they 
are  all  one,  and  they  flow  with  one  water.     But 


52  THE   CHURCH 

should  some  neighbouring  spring  bubble  forth, 
and  claim  to  be  in  affinity  and  connexion  with 
these  streams,  we  have  only  to  trace  it  back  and 
discover  whence  it  was,  to  detect  the  falsehood 
of  its  assumptions.  The  genuine  stream  when 
traced  through  all  its  course,  will  be  found  to 
terminate  in  the  one  true  spring  from  which  the 
other  streams  have  proceeded;  and  the  true 
Church  will  be  no  less  plainly  known,  when 
examined  as  mapped  down  in  the  records  of 
history,  and  traced  upwards  to  its  source. 

And  this  principle  of  unity — thus  actual,  and 
complete,  and  practical — is  such  an  unity  as 
truly  makes  and  constitutes  what  we  mean  by  a 
society.  Thus  we  find  other  societies,  wholly 
distinct  in  nature  and  in  object  from  the  society 
of  the  Church,  which  are  united  by  a  similar 
principle.  Some  of  my  readers  m.ay  be  ac- 
quainted, for  example,  with  some  of  the  larger 
benefit  clubs  which  extend  themselves  through 
most  parts  of  this  country,  by  means  of  branch 
lodges  in  different  districts  connected  together. 
Now  in  what  manner  would  it  be  necessary  to 
proceed,  in  order  to  establish  in  any  town  not 
yet  occupied,  a  lodge  or  branch  society  in  con- 
nexion with  some  such  '••Unity,"  in  order  to 
enjoy  the  same  privileges  in  common  with  all 


.       ./  ■-,     c     4,^     <£^ 


OF  CHRIST  IS  OXE. 


53 


its  members  ?    In  other  words,  what  is  that  bond 
of  miion  which  must  unite  us  with  the  rest  ?     It 
would  be  of  no  use  to  say,  We  will  establish  a 
lodge,  and  adopt  rules  and  orders,  and  frame  a 
constitution  precisely  similar  with  those  of  the 
society  or  "Unity"  we  propose  joining.     They 
would  still  disown  us  as  any  part  of  themselves. 
The  union  we  must  seek,  must  be  one  based  on 
transmission  or  descent.     It  must  be  like  that 
which  we  are  now  ascribing  to  the  Church,  one 
of  succession.     The  individuals  who  propose 
the  new  society  must  obtain  a  certain  number  of 
members  from  some  existing  lodge  duly  quali- 
fied in  conformity  with  the  rules  of  their  order, 
to  establish  a  new  lodge.     By  these  must  the 
first  members  be  enrolled,  and  the  new  officers 
instituted,  and  henceforth  they  are  one  with  the 
whole  order.     It  matters  not  through  how  many 
successive  steps  the  original  institution  may  pro- 
ceed; how  many  degrees  of  affinity  may  inter- 
vene, and  appear  to  separate  the  elder  and  the 
junior  branches  of  the  entire  body;  they  are  all 
derived  from  the  parent  club :  here  is  one  prin- 
ciple of  unity  pervading  the  whole,  and  so  they 
are  one  society. 

And  this  unity  is  not  affected  by  the  fact  that 
their  local  afiiiirs  are  under  their  own  indepen- 
5* 


54  THE  CHURCH 

dent  administration :  the  various  branches  may 
so  far  be  all  distinct  bodies,  but  the  reality  of 
the  unity  of  the  whole  is  still  recognised  in  their 
common  funds,  and  in  the  mutual  interchange 
of  assistance  and  correspondence. 

-And  thus  so  far  as  they  are  both  societies,  it 
is  allowable  that  we  draw  a  comparison  between 
the  Church  of  Christ,  and  the  benefit  club ;  and 
recognise  in  both  a  similar  principle  of  unity, 
constituting  each  respectively  in  all  its  various 
ramifications  one  single  society.  Let  us,  how- 
ever, while  we  apply  this  illustration,  bear  in 
mind  the  immeasurable  difference  which  must 
exist  between  the  two: — that  our  society  is 
founded  by  one  who  was  Himself  God,  and  that 
the  benefits  of  which  its  members  are  permitted 
to  be  partakers,  are  proportional^ly  great.  What 
can  the  club  for  mutual  assistance  in  things  of 
earth,  with  all  its  advantages,  boast  in  compari- 
son with  those  enjoyed  by  us  as  members  of 
Christ?  These  are  benefits  for  the  soul,  and 
not  confined  to  the  body — ^iDcnefits  for  eter- 
nity, and  not  of  a  mere  temporal  nature — ^giving 
means  of  restoration  from  the  deadly  plague  of 
sin,  not  from  bodily  sickness  alone — supplying 
the  means  not  liow  we  may  be  decently  interred, 
but  how  we  may  gloriously  rise. 


OF  CHRIST  IS  ONE.  55 

It  may,  however,  be  said,  that  the  oneness 
which  must  exist  between  Christ  and  his  mem- 
bers, may  be  understood  in  a  hidden  and  spirit- 
ual sense,  and  that  to  this  spiritual  bond  of 
unity  we  have  not  referred.  This  spiritual 
union  is  indeed  frequently  set  before  our  notice 
by  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  in  the  word  of 
God,  and  constitutes  the  true  life  of  the  Church, 
as  the  Spirit  is  the  life  of  the  body.  This 
spiritual  union,  however,  cannot  exclude  the 
necessity  of  an  external  and  discernible  bond 
of  unity.  For  the  Church  has  already  been 
shown  to  be  a  society,  a  body  of  men  orga- 
nized and  combined  in  an  external  system  and 
community.  There  must,  therefore,  be  some 
principle  upon  which  as  a  society  it  holds  to- 
gether. This  principle  it  has  been  our  pro- 
fessed object  to  ascertain,  as  it  is  that  to  which 
the  proposed  definition  of  the  Church  directed 
our  attention.  Our  main  design  is  to  describe 
the  Church  in  its  outward,  external  character — 
as  it  is  seen  by  the  world — as  it  is  an  object  of 
sense,  and  capable  of  demonstration — as  it  is 
the  visible  pillar  and  ground  of  truth.  We  de- 
scribe a  tree  or  a  plant  by  its  outward  form  and 
parts,  if  we  desire  to  make  it  more  generally 
known,  and   to  direct   to   it   the   attention    of 


56  THE    CHURCH    OF    CHRIST    IS    ONE. 

Others.  We  do  not,  when  this  is  our  end,  ana- 
lyze its  interior  structure  and  the  flow  of  its 
juices.  Now  the  result  at  which  we  aim  in 
our  present  inquiry  is  of  a  similar  kind  as  it 
regards  the  Church:  namely,  that  it  may  be 
accurately  discerned  and  truly  known,  and  cor- 
rectly appreciated.  We  exhibit  it,  therefore,  as 
it  is  a  Church — in  its  outward  character  as  a 
society  of  believers.  What  kind  of  unity  it  has 
in  that  capacity  as  an  outward  society  we  have 
now  determined;  it  is  in  fact  the  bond  of 
having  or  being  derived  from  a  common  origin. 
There  is  none  beside  which  imparts  that  actual 
brotherhood  which  is  a  main  feature  in  Christ's 
society — none  else  which  is  in  any  sort  a  de- 
monstrable bond  of  Church  unity.  We  shall 
proceed  to  distinguish  this  its  unity  from  that 
of  any  other  society,  by  a  mark  no  less  open  to 
investigation  and  proof.  For  so  far  as  it  is  a 
society,  it  is  to  be  estimated  and  judged  of  as 
any  other  society  might  be,  and  it  is  the  part  of 
common  sense  and  reason  to  treat  of  it  in  this 
plain  and  tangible  form. 


CHAPTER  V, 

THE    CHURCH    WAS     FOUXDED    OX    EARTH    BY 
OUR    LORD    JESUS    CHRIST. 

TPIE    principle    of    unity   in    the    When  the 
Church  is,  as  we  have  seen,  its    cilriS'w^ 
derivation   from    one    origin.      That    founded, 
origin,  we  come  next  to  consider,  is  its  institu- 
tion on  earth  by  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.     When 
veiled  in  human  flesh.  He  had  come  into  our 
world  of  sin  and  sorrow,  and  for  the  sake  of 
rebellious  man  deigned  to  dwell  among  us;  then 
in  furtherance  of  his  great  design  in  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  world.  He  founded  his  holy  Church. 

But  it  will  be  said.  Had  God  no  ^^^  before 
Church  in  the  world  before  Christ  jurist  came, 
came?  Our  answer  to  this  question  must  de- 
pend on  the  meaning  in  which  it  is  asked :  for 
if  we  take  the  words  in  our  own  sense  and 
answer  at  once  in  the  negative,  we  shall  doubt- 
less be  misunderstood.     If  it  is  meant  to  ask, 


58         THE    CHURCH    FOUNDED    ON    EARTH 

Had  God  no  believing  servants  in  the  world 
before  Christ  came — had  He  no  men  of  faith 
and  holiness  and  prayer — no  recipients  of  the 
dews  of  his  heavenly  grace  ? — God  be  praised, 
we  must  reply,  we  know  that  there  were  many 
such.  Did  not  Abraham  believe  God,  and  it 
was  accounted  unto  him  for  righteousness  ?i 
Does  not  the  apostle  enumerate  a  great  cloud 
of  Avitnesses,  who  through  faith  obtained  a  good 
report  ?  Yea,  the  time  would  fail  to  tell  of  all 
who  through  faith  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought 
righteousness,  obtained  promises.  2  The  faith 
of  the  Church  was  no  novelty,  first  introduced 
when  Christ  came.  Repentance,  the  expecta- 
tion of  a  Messiah,  and  trust  in  an  atonement  for 
sin,  had  long  before  been  preached :  they  had 
been  made  known  even  from  the  fall  of  our  first 
parents,  and  their  expulsion  from  Eden;  and 
God,  who  hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto 
us  by  his  Son,  had  in  sundry  times  and  divers 
manners  spoken  in  time  past  unto  the  fathers 
by  the  prophets.  ^ 

Or,  if  it  be  meant  to  ask — Had  God  no  so- 
ciety of  believing  people  before  Christ  came, 
called  out  of  the  world  to  be  his  peculiar,  that 

'Gen.  XV.  6.    Rom.  iv.  3.  ^Heb.  xi. 

•'Heb.  i.  1.  2. 


BY    OUR    LORD    JESUS    CHRIST.  59 

is,  his  own,  people,  and  bound  together  by 
holy  religious  ties,  ordained  and  sanctified  by 
Himself  ? — then  we  must  answer.  It  is  true  God 
had  such  a  society.  There  was  a  chosen  family 
of  "sons  of  God"  before  the  flood,  the  guar- 
dians of  sacred  truth,  in  the  knoAvledge  of  God 
and  of  his  promised  redemption,  ^  the  preservers 
of  his  holy  worship, «  and  the  participators  of 
his  grace  and  blessing. ^  God  also  made  a  cove- 
nant with  Abraham  and  his  seed:*  He  made  a 
covenant  afterwards  with  the  house  of  Israel, 
w^hen  "he  took  them  by  the  hand  to  lead  them 
out  of  the  land  of  Eg^^pt:"^  and  the  greater  part 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  a  history  of  God's 
chosen  people  and  of  his  dealings  with  them. 
St.  Stephen  6  describes  the  nation  of  the  Jews 
during  their  wanderings  as  "the  Church" 
(sxxA7]<ri««)  in  the  wilderness,  for  they  were 
truly  a  society  called  out  from  the  world,  and 
united  in  covenant  with  God. 

But  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word  Church,' 
as  denoting  the  Society  of  our  Lord.,  that  body 
of  which  ice  are  members,  and  of  which  we  are 

'2Pet.  ii.  5.  ^Gen.iv.  26. 

3  Gen.  v.  24.  Heb.  xi.  4—7.  ^  Gen.  xvii. 

6  Heb.  viii.  9.  ^  Acts  vii.  33. 
'Note  6. 


60         THE    CHURCH    FOUNDED    ON    EARTH 

now  treating,  the  Church  was  not  planted  in  the 
world  until  it  was  established  by  Christ  Jesus. 
He  is  the  Mediator  of  a  neiv  covenant.  lie 
taketh  away  the  old  dispensation,  the  ceremo- 
nies, the  sacrifices,  the  priesthood  of  the  Jews, 
that  He  may  establish  a  second  dispensation.  ^ 
The  Apostle  places  the  one  in  contrast  to  the 
other,  and  points  out  that  the  Jews  living  under 
the  Mosaic  law,  were  not  living  under  the 
Gospel,  and  therefore,  as  a  society,  were  wholly 
to  be  distinguished  from  the  society  of  Christ. 
"The  law  was  given  by  Moses,  but  grace  and 
truth  came  by  Jesus  Christ." 

Let  us  not,  however,  depreciate  the  true  pri- 
vileges and  blessings  enjoyed  by  the  old  fathers. 
Although  they  were  not  the  Church,  they 
shared  many  of  the  blessings  which  the  Church 
now  enjoys,  and  they  represented  and  typified 
the  Church.  Especially  was  it  so  with  regard 
to  the  chosen  people  of  Israel,  and  St.  Paul,  to 
the  inquiry  of  the  unbeliever,  What  advantage 
hath  the  Jew.?  replies,  "Much  every  way, 
chiefly  because  that  unto  them  were  committed 
the  oracles  of  God."^  Nor  can  we  doubt  but 
that  they  who  looked  for  the  promised  seed  of 

'  H»ib.  viii.  ix.  x.  ^  Rom.  iii.  1,  2. 


BY  OUR  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST.       61 

the  woman,  and  in  the  appointed  sacrifices  an- 
ticipated the  great  propitiatory  Sacrifice  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  workl,  were  as  truly  saved, 
through  the  Redeemer  of  mankind,  as  any  in 
his  Church.  And  now  that  they  reign  in  hea- 
ven, they  have  been  admitted  into  the  full  pri- 
vileges of  unity  in  that  Church  into  which  on 
earth  it  was  not  the  Avill  of  God  they  should  be 
admitted.  Though  while  they  lived  here  below 
they  were  not  incorporated  into  the  family  of 
that  Saviour  in  whom  they  believed;  yet  now 
they  are  incorporated,  for  they  are  come  unto 
that  which  the  Gospel  has  in  a  measure  re- 
vealed to  us,  the  city  of  the  living  God,  "the 
general  assembly  and  Church  of  the  firstborn, 
which  are  written  in  heaven,  and  to  God  the 
Judge  of  all,  and  to  the  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect,  and  to  Jesus  the  Mediator  of  the 
new  covenant."^ 

And  as  the  Church  of  Christ  was  ^^^  ^^^^^ 
not  in  the  world  before  Christ  came  Christ  lived 
in  the  flesh,  so  also  the  evidence  of  °° 
history  renders  it  impossible  to  place  its  institu- 
tion at  a  later  period.     Not  even  its  greatest 
enemies,  in  their  efforts  to  effect  its  downfall, 

'  Heb.  xii.  22—24.     Eph.  i.  10. 


62         THE    CHURCH    FOUx\DED    ON    EARTH 

have  ever  ventured  to  pretend  that  it  sprang  up 
as  an  invention  of  more  recent  times,  or  that  it 
assumes  to  itself  an  antiquity  which  does  not 
belong  to  it,  for  the  sake  of  imposing  upon  the 
ignorant.  The  matters  of  actual  fact  connected 
with  its  beginning  and  rise,  are  such  as  could 
never  have  been  a  mere  fiction,  and  it  is  impos- 
sible that  its  holy  rites  and  ceremonies,  comme- 
morative as  they  are  of  its  first  establishment, 
could  have  taken  their  rise  at  any  other  period 
of  time  than  immediately  upon  those  events  of 
which  they  profess  to  be  the  memorials.  The 
voice  of  history,  denying  the  Church  or  its 
sacraments  a  later  origin,  cannot  be  gainsaid, 
when  the  possibility  of  deception  or  imposition 
is  so  remote. 
„   ^^  .  The  distinguishing  feature,  there- 

By  Christ  \  ^  '. 

Himself  lorc,  by  which  we  distmguish  the 
e?rth.  °"  Church  from  all  other  societies,  that 
is,  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and 
earth  named  from  Christ,  from  all  other  families, 
must  undoubtedly  be  its  foundation  upon  earth 
by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  when  in  our  likeness 
He  dwelt  with  men.  This,  our  holy  society, 
dates  its  years  from  Christ.  It  bears  his  name. 
A  heathen  historian  writes,  "Auctor  nominis 
ejus  Christus,  Tiberio  imperitante,  per  procura- 


BY  OUR  LORD   JESUS  CHRIST.  63 

torem  Pentium  Pilatum  siipplicio  affectus  erat."* 
In  Scripture  He  is  called  "  the  Author  and  Fin- 
isher of  our  faith -,"2  "the  Head  over  all  things 
to  the  Church,  which  is  his  body."^  He  took 
his  first  members  out  of  the  world  to  make  them 
a  body  distinct  from  the  world,  and  He  says  to 
them,  "If  ye  were  of  the  world,  the  w^orld 
would  love  his  own :  but  because  ye  are  not  of 
the  world,  but  I  have  chosen  you  out  of  the 
world,  therefore  the  world  hateth  you."*  He 
tells  them,  "Ye  call  me  Master  and  Lord:  and 
ye  say  well;  for  so  I  am."^ 

Trui  found  ^^^  ^^^^  ^^  ^^  Supposed  that  He 
ed  as  a  so-  originated  Christianity  only  as  a  name, 
"^*^'"  or  as  the  designation  of  a  party,  as  a 

school  of  painters  or  philosophers  is  said  to  be 
founded.  On  the  contrary,  we  find  plain  proofs 
of  his  institution  of  it  in  connexion  with  those 
especial  particulars  which  we  have  seen  are  the 
peculiar  marks  and  characteristics  of  a  society. 
His  disciples  were  distinct  from  the  mere  chance 
crowd  which  assembled  from  curiosity  or  self- 
interest.  They  were  personally  chosen  by  our 
Lord,  and  constituted  a  brotherhood  by  them- 

'  Tacitus,  Ann.  xv.  44.  2  fjeb.  xii.  2. 

3  Eph.  V.  23.  25.     Col.  i.  18.        ^  John  xv.  19. 
5  John  xiii.  13. 


64  THE  CHURCH  FOUNDED  ON  EARTH 

selves.  And  moreover,  our  Lord  appointed 
among  them  different  orders,  and  organized  the 
■whole  body  in  a  mutual  relation  of  parts.  As 
when  the  multitudes  were  miraculously  fed  in 
the  wilderness,  our  Lord  arranged  them  into 
companies,  and  distributed  the  bread  through 
the  hands  of  chosen  ministers,  so  our  Lord  con- 
stituted his  Church,  and  arranged  his  members 
in  their  proper  rank  and  station — the  ministers 
and  those  ministered  unto,  the  rulers  and  those 
who  were  ruled,  the  pastors  and  they  who  were 
fed.  And  first,  out  of  the  whole  number  of  his 
disciples  He  chose  twelve,  whom  He  named 
Apostles.  ^  Afterwards  He  appointed  seventy  of 
inferior  rank,  and  sent  them  to  work  miracles 
and  to  preach  in  the  various  cities  of  the  Jews; 
for  the  harvest  was  great,  but  the  labourers  few.^ 
And  thus  under  Christ  Himself,  the  great  Bishop 
of  our  souls,  personally  present  among  them, 
the  Church  was  fully  constituted :  while  to  each 
of  these  two  orders,  emanating  alike  from  Him- 
self, He  pronounced  this  benediction  and  com- 
mission of  authority,  "He  that  receiveth  you, 
receiveth  me.     He    that   heareth  you,  heareth 


me. 


753 


1  Luke  vi.  13.  «  Luke  x.  1,  2. 

3  Matt.  X.  40.    Luke  x.  16. 


BY  OUR  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST.  65 

The  sacraments  also  it  has  been  already 
proved,  are  evidences  of  a  society;  so  that 
Christ,  in  appointing  them,  plainly  appears  to 
have  founded  the  Church  in  that  its  corporate 
character.  ''Go  ye,"  He  says  to  his  Apostles, 
"and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  ^  And  again  of  the  holy  commu- 
nion, "This  do  in  remembrance  of  me;  for  as 
often  as  ye  eat  this  bread  and  drmk  this  cup,  ye 
do  show  the  Lord's  death  till  he  come."^ 

Our  Saviour  then,  it  has  been  seen,  did  not 
merely  deliver  doctrmes  to  chance  hearers,  but 
He  chose  disciples  out  of  such  as  desired  to  learn 
of  Him :  He  chd  not  merely  instruct  and  train  a 
number  of  disciples,  but  He  also  organized  them 
into  their  proper  ranks  and  order:  He  did  not 
suffer  them  to  be  externally  disunited.  He  ap- 
pointed in  holy  mysteries  the  emblem  and  the 
bond  of  love  and  brotherhood :  He  did  not  leave 
the  body  of  his  followers  to  dwindle  away  and 
become  extinct  after  He  should  be  removed  from 
them,  but  He  gave  them  a  charter  of  perpetuity, 
and  committed  to  his  Apostles  an  authority  to 
be  transmitted  downward  to  the  end  of  time. 

»  Matt,  xxviii.  19.  -  1  Cor.  xi.  2.j. 

6* 


66  THE  CHURCH  FOUXDED  ON  EARTH 

By  these  facts  it  is  plain  lie  hath  founded  an 
actual  society.  Thus  hath  He  built  a  Church, 
and  the  gates  of  liell  cannot  prevail  against  it. 
He  takes  his  own  rank  as  the  prime  beginner 
and  originator  of  the  whole,  and  not  only  so, 
He  is  Himself  of  his  Church,  He  is  Himself  a 
part  of  that  which  He  originates.  The  society 
has  its  beo^inninor  in  Him  as  Avell  as  from  Him. 
He  is,  therefore,  the  fountain  from  which  the 
whole  stream  flows,  and  of  wdiich  it  also  con- 
sists. Not  only  does  the  whole  body  derive 
from  Him  its  life  and  authority,  but  He  is  Him- 
self in  the  body  and  of  the  body.  It  is  the  ful- 
ness of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all. 

In  order  to  take  a  more  complete  view  how 
Christ  is  the  Head  of  his  Church,  and  thus  to 
gain  a  better  understanding  of  the  definition  un- 
der our  consideration,  it  will  be  well  to  enter 
into  some  further  distinctions.  The  faithful  in 
Christ  Jesus  need  not  to  have  it  now  confirmed 
to  them  by  proof,  that  He  in  whom  they  believe, 
being  the  express  image  of  the  Almighty  Father, 
but  born  of  a  mortal  woman,  was  both  God  and 
man :  and  that  in  these  two  natures  perfectly  ex- 
isting. He  is  not  two  but  one  Christ.  With 
these  truths  then  before  our  mind,  let  us  proceed 


BY  OUR  LORD   JESUS  CHRIST.  67 

to  examine  more  accurately  the  relation  which 
as  Head  He  bears  to  his  Church. 

Christ,  on  the  one  hand  is  man. 
Then,  as  man.  He  is  Head  of  his  founder  of 
Church,  just  as  any  man  whatsoever  Jg  ^^n""^^^' 
may  be  head  of  any  society  or  club 
of  men  which  he  may  see  fit  to  form.  The 
head  of  any  society  or  union  of  persons  formicd 
for  objects  of  mere  temporal  utility,  is  he  who 
first  bands  together  individuals  for  the  end  he 
proposes — assigns  to  them  the  rules  by  which 
they  are  to  act — the  badges  Avhich  are  to  denote 
that  they  belong  to  one  fraternity — tlie  mode  in 
which  they  are  to  enrol  others  into  their  num- 
ber— and  the  officers  under  whom  they  are  to 
act.  Such  an  one  would  be  the  head  of  the 
society  formed,  whether  a  benefit  club,  or  a 
mercantile  society,  or  a  temperance  society,  or 
whatever  it  might  chance  to  be.  In  this  sense, 
the  man  Christ  Jesus  is  the  Head  of  his  Church, 
as  it  has  been  already  shown.  For  He  first 
chose  out  his  Apostles ;  He  established  the  rules 
and  principles  of  his  society;  He  appointed  the 
officers  by  which  it  should  be  governed;  He 
fixed  the  badges  and  tokens  of  the  brotherhood ; 
and  He  ordained  the  mode  in  which  new  mem- 
bers should  be  enrolled,  and  the  orders  of  the 


68  THE  CHURCH  FOUNDED  ON  EARTH 

ministry  perpetuated.  In  these  respects  He  is 
Head,  as  being  man.  As  He  wrapped  his  God- 
head in  manhood,  and  to  the  natural  eyes  was 
seen  only  as  man, — so  in  establishing  these  its 
outward  features.  He  exercised  his  natural  hu- 
man powers  only :  as  He  condescended  to  hum- 
ble himself  to  our  nature,  so  did  He  adapt  his 
Church  also  to  the  nature  and  comprehension 
of  man.  He  was  Himself  in  the  form  of  a  man, 
and  his  Church  He  framed  as  a  human  society; 
He  placed  it  in  the  care  of  human  ministers :  He 
left  it  to  be  perpetuated  after  the  manner  of  hu- 
man institutions,  and  in  future  ages  to  be  known 
and  judged  of,  in  a  great  measure,  as  men  would 
know  and  judge  of  any  other  long  established 
society ; — that  every  man  who  inquired  might 
be  able  to  satisfy  himself,  this  is  the  actual  body 
of  men  which  received  its  first  institution  by  the 
man  Jesus. 

He  is  also  But,  Christ  was  more  than  man; 

God.  jjg  ^jjg  aisQ  Qo(j^     'pj^ej^  ^yQ   find 

Him  acting  as  Head  of  his  Church  in  this  na- 
ture also.  He  is  Head  as  God — in  a  sense  in 
which  no  man  can  have  the  power  to  be  head 
of  any  society  which  he  may  institute — in  the 
sense  of  being  the  source  of  Divine  grace  and 
assistance,  the  spring  of  life  and  healing  virtue 


BY  OUR  LORD    JESUS  CHRIST.  69 

which  flow  to  all  his  living  members.  No 
mere  man  could  confer  such  benefits  as  these. 
A  man  might  indeed  make  useful  regulations, 
and  lay  down  beneficial  plans — he  might  frame 
his  union  of  individuals  on  such  judicious  prin- 
ciples, as  might  in  various  ways  improve,  and 
assist,  and  stimulate,  and  confirm  them  in  the 
practice  and  pursuit  of  what  was  praiseworthy 
and  pure.  But  he  could  not  say,  I  will  regene- 
rate you  in  your  inward  soul ;  I  will  co-operate 
with  you  my  members,  invisibly  by  my  Spirit ; 
I  will  confer  hidden  blessings  upon  you,  in  all 
your  obedience  to  my  rules,  and  observance  of 
my  institutions ;  I  will  impart  life  and  holiness 
to  your  souls.  This  only  can  God  say,  and 
Christ,  the  second  person  of  the  Divine  Trinity, 
is,  as  God,  the  Head  of  his  Church,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  these  spiritual  powers.  ''•This  is  the 
covenant  that  I  will  make,"  saith  the  Lord,  "  I 
will  put  my  laws  in  their  mind,  and  write  them 
in  their  hearts ;  and  I  will  be  to  them  a  God,  and 
they  shall  be  to  me  a  people.  For  I  will  be 
merciful  unto  their  unrighteousness,  and  their 
sins  and  iniquities  will  I  remember  no  more."^ 
"It  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,"  saith 

iHeb.  viii.  10.  12. 


70  THE    CHURCH    FOUNDED    ON    EARTH 

God,  "  I  will  pour  out  of  my  Spirit  upon  all 
flesh." ^  "I  am  the  living  bread  which  came 
down  from  heaven;  if  any  man  eat  of  this  bread 
he  shall  live  for  ever."  2  "  I  in  them,  and  thou  in 
me,"  was  our  Saviour's  prayer  for  his  Church ; 
let  my  Divine  nature.  He  asks,  be  to  them  a 
source  of  life,  and  guidance,  and  truth.  The 
members  of  Christ  are,  therefore,  one  body  and 
one  spirit : — one  body  as  Christ  is  man,  a  real 
and  discernible  society,  founded  by  Him  while 
He  lived  among  us  in  his  tabernacle  of  flesh : 
one  spirit  as  He  is  God,  from  Him  as  source  and 
vital  spring,  deriving  spiritual  help  and  heavenly 
grace. 

He  is  G  d  "'^"^  there  is  one  step  further  to  be 

and  man  taken  in  this  our  view  of  Christ  as 
conjome  .  jjgg^j  ^f  j^jg  Churcli.  Christ  is  both 
God  and  man,  unitedly.  He  was  wholly  man, 
and  also  wholly  God,  yet  not  two  but  one  Per- 
son. In  like  manner,  Christ  is  Head  of  his 
Church  at  once  spiritually  and  outwardly.  His 
members,  taken  collectively,  are  one  body  and 
one  spirit  conjoined.  He  has  not  two  Churches, 
one  of  which  He  has  outwardly  founded,  the 
other  He  spiritually  blesses :  He  who  was  both 

lActs  ii.  16,  17.  sjohnvi.  51. 


BY    OUR    LORD    JESUS    CHRIST.  71 

God  and  man  is  one  Head,  and  his  members 
united  unto  Him  both  outwardly  and  spiritually 
are  one  Church.  And  hence,  the  privileges  also 
resulting  from  its  twofold  nature  must  be  looked 
for  and  expected  as  conjoined  together.  Whi- 
ther did  the  Jews  of  old  go  to  obtain  spiritual 
food,  but  to  Him  who  supplied  them  with  the 
natural  food  ?  Whence  did  they  obtain  the  un- 
seen wonders  of  forgiveness  of  sins,  but  from 
Him  w^hose  power  was  manifested  before  their 
eyes  in  healing  the  sick  in  body?  They  who 
needed  heavenly  grace  would  go  to  the  person 
of  our  Lord,  they  would  seek  Him  in  his  human 
nature,  and  touch  Him  in  his  outward  man. 
Thus  in  his  mystical  body,  the  Church,  are  to 
be  sought  the  gifts  and  graces  which  the  Re- 
deemer of  the  world  has  to  bestow  upon  all 
who  in  faith  and  humble  penitence  desire  them. 
To  it  have  the  promises  of  his  covenant  been 
made,  and  we  must  seek  them  there;  in  the 
unity  with  the  one  body,  in  the  observance  of 
the  duties  which  his  covenant  imposes  upon  us, 
in  the  assembling  of  ourselves  together  as  He 
has  commanded  his  disciples,  in  the  prayers 
and  sacraments  and  visible  rites  which  he  has 
enjoined.  We  must  seek  spiritual  membership 
in  the  outward  membership — spiritual  grace  in 


72         THE    CHURCH    FOUNDED    ON    EARTH 

the  outward  sign — spiritual  communion  in  the 
outward  communion — and  thus  shall  we  grow 
up  into  Him  in  all  things  who  both  as  God  and 
as  man  is  the  Head,  even  Christ.  It  will  be  by 
the  exercise  of  faith  that  these  things  are  fully- 
understood.  The  Jews  could  turn  away  from 
the  Son  of  God,  and  say,  "Is  not  this  the  car- 
penter's son.?"  beholding  no  Divine  beauty  iu 
Him  that  He  should  be  desired.  And  we  should 
act  in  the  same  manner  with  regard  to  his  mys- 
tical body  still  on  earth,  and  deem  it  nothing 
better  than  any  other  long  established  society, 
unless  we  have  that  faith  of  Peter  which  enabled 
him  to  say,  "Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go? 
thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life;  and  we 
believe  and  are  sure  that  thou  art  that  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  living  God." 

Here  then  we  may  pause,  having 
first  briefly  reviewed  the  line  of  argu- 
ment which  we  have  been  pursuing.  Our  object 
has  been  to  form  in  the  mind  a  clear  and  dis- 
tinct notion  of  what  it  is  which  ought  to  be 
understood  as  signified  by  the  name  of  the 
Church  of  Christ.  We  began  by  defining  it  as 
the  one  society  of  believers  which  was  founded 
on  earth  by  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  Each  of 
the  points  which  this  brief  proposition  contains, 


BY    OUR    LORD    JESUS    CHRIST.  73 

have  been  separately  established.  It  has  been 
proved  to  consist  of  believers  in  the  faith  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ,  and  these  believers  to  be  in- 
corporated and  associated  together  into  a  certain 
society.  The  peculiar  bond  which  constitutes 
the  principle  of  unity  in  this  society,  we  further 
ascertained  to  be  its  derivation  and  transmission 
from  one  origin;  and  that  origin  was  ascribed 
to  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who  being  man, 
and  acting  as  man,  founded  upon  earth  a  per- 
petual society,  manifest  before  all  men,  and 
existing  in  external  discernible  form  as  any 
other  society  might  exist ;  and  being  also  at  the 
same  time  God,  hath  made  with  it  an  everlast- 
ing covenant  of  salvation,  and  imparts  his  bless- 
ing in  and  by  it  to  his  faithful  children. 

Such  is  the  Church  of  Christ;  and  as  Christ 
founded  but  one  society  upon  earth,  this  note 
of  its  origin  is  a  clear  and  sufficient  mark  by 
which   it   is    distinguished    from  all  j,^^  church 
other  societies  whatsoever.     The  de-  i"  heaven 

.,        ,        ,    ^    .     and  earth  in- 

linition  given  is  primarily  the  defini-  eluded  in  the 
tion  of  the  Church  on  earth;  but  ^'^"^^""• 
forasmuch  as  the  Church  above  and  below  form 
together  but  one  body,  we  do  in  fact  denote  the 
whole,  although  we  draw  its  distinguishing  fea- 
ture from  one  portion  only,  that  with  which 
7 


74        THE    CHURCH    FOUNDED    BY    CHRIST. 

we  are  most  acquainted.  The  entire  Church  of 
God;  the  general  assembly  of  the  first-born; 
all  things  gathered  together  in  Christ,  both 
which  are  in  heaven,  and  which  are  in  earth ;  * 
all  those  his  creatures,  be  they  angels  or  men, 
whom  God  has  called  out  and  enrolled  into  his 
one  heavenly  society,  and  made  inheritors  of 
the  promise  of  his  eternal  kingdom;  all  this 
entire  body  with  Christ  their  head,  to  whom  is 
given  a  name  which  is  above  every  other  name, 
we  may  designate,  (in  reference  to  that  part 
with  which  we  are  more  immediately  acquaint- 
ed,) The  Society  of  Believers,  which  in  behalf 
of  mankind  was  in  mercy  planted  here  on  earth, 
by  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 

1  Eph.  i.  10.    Col.  i.  20. 


PART    II 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY    OF    MEMBERSHIP 
IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    CHRIST. 

WE  have  now  defined  what  is  the  Church  of 
Christ;  namely,  that  it  is  the  society  of 
believers  which  was  founded  upon  earth  by 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  From  the  particulars 
which  make  up  this  definition  we  gather  the 
great  advantages  which  the  Church  holds  out, 
and  the  duty  which  devolves  on  all  who  pro- 
fess the  name  of  Christ  of  being  incorporated 
into  it.  Fellow-members  in  that  Church,  to 
whom  especially  I  address  myself  in  these 
pages,  let  me  rather  say,  that  from  it  we  gather 
a   knowledge  of  the   privileges  and   blessings 


76  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

which  we  have  received,  and  are  reminded  of 
the  extent  of  the  loss  which  we  should  suffer 
if  excluded  from  our  union  with  Christ,  or  the 
benefits  resulting  from  it. 

In  the  first  place,  it  has  been  seen 
which  the  that  the  Church  consists  of  believers ; 
foldTas  con-  "^  ^^^^  particular,  the  Church  affords 
sisting  of       US  an  advantage  by  linking  us,  as  it 

S6li6V6rs 

were,  in  companionship  with  those 
of  like  faith  and  hope  with  ourselves.  It  places 
us  among  the  number  of  those,  with  whom  we 
may  find  the  truest  source  of  friendship  and 
happiness,  a  kindred  spirit.  Here  we  may  find 
examples,  which,  as  followers  of  Christ,  we 
may  do  well  to  imitate.  Here  we  may  mu- 
tually cheer  and  encourage  one  another  in  well- 
doing, according  to  the  precept  which  St.  Paul 
gives,  "Comfort  yourselves  together,  and  edify 
one  another."  "Iron  sharpeneth  iron,  so  a 
man  sharpeneth  the  countenance  of  his  friend." 
II.  Benefits  "^^^  ^^^  thcsc  advantages  will  ap- 
derived  from  pear  especially  strengthened  and  en- 
as  a  Society,  forced,  when  we  consider  the  Church 
1.  Union.  j^g  ^  society  of  believers.  For  the 
advantages  of  mere  companionship  are  ratified 
and  rendered  obligatory  when  we  are  united 
together  by  compact,  and  when  an  actual  polity 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  77 

exists  among  us  for  the  cherishing  of  that  com- 
mon faith  and  kindred  spirit  which  render  com- 
panionship acceptable.  Instead  of  meeting  to- 
gether only  because  similarity  of  opinion  makes 
each  agreeable  to  the  others,  we  are  joined 
together  by  duty,  and  by  fixed  rules  and  obliga- 
tions. Instead  of  being  liable  to  the  loss  of 
our  mutual  connexion  as  soon  as  any  small 
difference  of  opinion  shall  dissolve  our  relation, 
in  the  bond  of  a  society  we  are  still  united, 
may  still  feel  essentially  one,  may  ever  feel,  as 
it  were,  drawn  together  towards  reconciliation 
and  love. 

The  benefit  of  the  Church  as  a  2.  Means  of 
society,  is  further  apparent,  as  being  worship. 
hence  an  instrument  of  united  worship.  If 
Christians  were  not  united  in  some  society, 
there  could  be  no  systematic  and  regular  as- 
sembling for  common  prayer.  There  must  be 
some  arrangement  and  consent;  some  concen- 
tration of  directing  judgment,  in  order  to  ap- 
point its  place,  its  modes,  its  forms.  Thus, 
without  a  society,  believers  would  lose  one  of 
the  main  and  most  delightful,  as  well  as  most 
profitable  methods  of  testifying  their  common 
faith.  They  would  lose  the  advantage  of  that 
elevation  of  desire  and  hope  which  a  joint  as- 


78  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

sembly  for  presenting  our  petitions  may  reason- 
ably inspire,  and  the  encouragement  which 
may  be  derived  from  the  recollection  that  their 
prayers  are  not  offered  up  alone,  but  in  con- 
junction with  the  prayers  of  others  of  the  ser- 
vants of  God.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  suf- 
fereth  violence,  and  the  violent  take  it  by  force. 
3.  Disci-  The  discipline  of  its  members  is 

pime.  another  advantage  which,  as  a  so- 

ciety, the  Church  is  capable  of  affording.  To 
reprove  or  to  correct  is  in  itself  an  ungrateful 
task;  there  is  required  the  existence  of  some 
acknowledged  authority,  or  reproof  will  neither 
be  efficiently  administered  on  the  one  side,  nor 
received  with  due  submission  on  the  other. 
Now  that  mutual  relation  of  parts  which  the 
nature  of  an  organized  body  confers,  supplies 
this  authority ;  for  a  society  must  possess  rulers 
and  governors ;  and  to  these,  in  all  matters  con- 
nected with  its  general  design,  the  rest  are  un- 
der obligation  to  respect  and  obey.  The 
Church  then  as  a  Society,  guided  and  directed 
by  her  bishops  and  presbyters,  the  pastors  of 
the  flock,  has  her  form  of  discipline — a  disci- 
pline to  be  exercised  mainly  in  the  correction 
of  the  lives  and  morals  of  her  members,  and  in 
the  disposing  and  reforming  matters  of  outward 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  79 

relig-ious  observance.  She  may  pronounce  her 
censures,  and  solemn  admonitions,  upon  the 
reckless  inconsiderate  triflers,  and  other  unwor- 
thy or  profane  persons  whom  she  may  find 
among  her  sons :  she  may  impose  acts  of  pen- 
ance upon  those  who  desire  to  notify  their 
sorrow  for  their  past  offences,  and  for  the  scan- 
dal which  they  have  brought  upon  the  Church 
of  Christ,  or  who  seek  to  correct  and  bridle 
their  sinful  desires:  she  may  pronounce  her 
excommunication,  either  the  lesser  excommu- 
nication, excluding  from  the  participation  of  the 
Holy  Communion;  or  the  greater  excommuni- 
cation, whereby  the  offender  is  likewise  with- 
held from  the  society  of  believers,  and  all  par- 
ticipation in  the  Church"*s  assemblies  and 
prayers.  The  right  to  exercise  such  powers 
she  has  as  a  Society ;  and  their  importance  and 
use  cannot  be  denied.  They  are  directed  per- 
sonally to  erring  members,  and  thus  bear  down 
upon  them  with  immediate  application,  which 
general  admonitions  often  fail  to  do.  And  at 
the  same  time  their  benefits  extend  themselves 
to  others  also.  By  them  may  careless  Chris- 
tians be  reminded  of  their  danger;  sinners 
among  them  be  reclaimed;  the  faithful  encour- 
aged ;  the  whole  body  preserved  from  evil  con- 


80  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

tagion;  and  the  dignity  of  Christ's  holy  sacra- 
ments maintained.  By  them,  before  a  world 
lying  in  wickedness,  a  witness  is  made  of  the 
righteousness  of  God's  laws,  and  of  his  denun- 
ciations against  sin.  In  a  word,  as  the  service 
for  Ash-Wednesday  expresses  it,  the  offender  is 
solemnly  punished  in  this  world  by  open  shame 
or  degi'adation,  that  his  soul  may  be  saved  in 
the  day  of  the  Lord;  and  that  others  admon- 
ished by  his  example  might  be  more  afraid  to 
offend. 

4.  instruc-  Again,  the  Church  as  a  Society  af- 
tion.  fords  this  advantage,  that  hereby  is 

supplied  a  method  for  the  instruction  of  its 
members.  It  is  an  organization  of  pastors  and 
their  flocks;  and  such  an  organization  implies 
the  relative  duty  of  feeding  and  of  receiving 
food.  Without  such  an  arrangement,  we  should 
have  no  security  for  the  inculcating  and  explain- 
ing of  the  true  faith  of  the  Gospel,  or  any  safe- 
guard against  gross  ignorance.  For  if  it  were 
left  to  individual  curiosity  and  earnestness,  and 
men  had  to  study  and  explore  each  for  himself, 
to  make  inquiries,  and  search  from  men  and 
from  books,  as  to  what  was  the  faith  of  Christ, 
the  labour,  if  not  by  all,  at  least  by  most  would 
be  found  impracticable.     Their  other  avocations 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  81 

would  prevent  them  from  devoting  sufficient  time 
to  these  investigations,  and  only  men  of  leisure 
and  studious  habits  would  be  found,  under  any 
supposition,  acquainted  with  the  faith.  Or,  if  it 
be  said  that  it  might  be  sufhciently  handed  down 
by  the  force  of  the  general  duty  which  devolves 
upon  all  parents  to  teach  their  children,  and  those 
who  should  come  after  them,  it  must  be  answered 
that  even  this  would  not  of  itself  effect  the  ob- 
ject which  is  desired.  Christianity  would  then 
be  di^dded,  as  religion  was  among  the  heathen 
of  old,  into  distinct  family  religions;  it  would 
be  a  means  of  creating  and  maintaining  family 
distinctions,  and  we  should  lose  the  benefit  de- 
rived from  the  great  bond  of  Christian  unity, 
our  common  fraternity  in  the  one  Catholic  family 
of  Christ.  Or  perhaps,  again,  it  may  be  argued 
that  private  zeal  and  the  benevolent  desire  of 
doing  and  imparting  good  in  the  heart  of  earnest 
Christians,  might  suffice  for  affording  enlighten- 
ment to  their  benighted  neighbours,  without  any 
organization  of  a  church,  with  its  pastors  and 
flocks  committed  to  their  care.  But  such  labours 
must  in  a  great  degree  prove  weak  and  of  com- 
paratively little  effect  from  the  want  of  united 
effort,  and  a  general  design.  All  great  projects 
and  undertakings,  requiring  permanent  care  and 


82 


THE    ADA'ANTAGES    AXD  DUTY 


attention,  are  ordinarily  committed  into  the 
hands  of  a  body,  that  the  energies  of  many  may 
be  concentrated  and  brought  to  bear  together: 
and  if  the  reHgious  elevation  and  enlightenment 
of  our  fellow-creatures  is  a  work  of  this  kind 
and  one  of  such  importance  as  to  claim  the  full 
powers  of  man  to  be  exercised  in  it,  it  not  less 
needs  the  acknowledged  benefits  of  mutual  co- 
operation and  combination.  And  indeed,  who 
can  tell  how  soon  individual  zeal  may  give  way  ? 
perhaps  in  one  age  the  excitement  of  contending 
parties  gives  rise  to  teachers  innumerable;  men 
strive  to  be  teachers  even  where  they  ought  to 
be  learners ;  and  all  are  eager  to  hear  some  novel 
or  more  startling  instructor.  And  then  again,  the 
stream  sets  with  equal  violence  against  the  op- 
posite bank;  the  strained  bow  flies  back  in  the 
contrary  direction  to  that  in  which  it  was  just 
before  strained ;  and  few  care  to  teach,  and  few 
to  hear.  There  can  be  no  stable,  systematic, 
uncontroversial  teaching,  able  to  stand  against 
the  eddies  of  passing  opinion,  except  as  main- 
tained by  the  organization  of  some  actual  socie- 
ty, in  which  teacher  and  taught  are  combined, 
and  their  mutual  relation  definitely  marked  out. 
Such  teaching  depends  not  solely  on  the  excite- 
ment of  controversy,  and  therefore  is  more  like- 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  83 

ly  to  be  deep,  and  practical,  and  sincere ;  it  has 
a  momentum  or  force  of  its  own,  which  carries 
it  safely  over  obstacles,  which  compensates  in 
some  degree  for  the  deficiencies  of  its  ministers, 
and  renders  it  less  dependent  on  the  mere  ap- 
probation and  consent  of  the  hearers. 

But  let  us  proceed  to  notice   the  jjr_  Benefits 
further  benefits  which  the  Church  af-  winch  the 

,      -,  .  .  Church  af- 

fords on  the  ground  of  its  unity — as  fords  as  be- 

being  one  society — one  by  that  prin-  *"°  °^^' 
ciple  of  continuity  and  succession  which  has 
been  shown  in  the  former  part  to  be  essentially 
the  oneness  of  the  Church.  Not  now  to  refer 
to  the  enlarged  feeling  of  brotherhood  and  union 
which  this  connexion  is  calculated  to  engender 
toward  fellow-believers  throughout  the  world,  it 
will  be  found  an  important  security  for  the  pre- 
servation and  perpetuity  of  the  faith  in  its  truth 
and  purity.  Man  has  but  a  little  day  upon  the 
earth,  and  individually  he  can  boast  nothing  of 
any  perpetuity  here.  He  is  subject  to  change 
and  decay  m  himself,  and  with  him  all  his 
thoughts  perish.  But  as  he  beholds  the  power 
of  natural  reproduction  constantly  going  on  in 
his  species,  so  he  is  led  to  look  to  a  similar 
method  for  the  preservation  of  the  principles  of 
truth  which  he  prizes  as  dearly,  perhaps,  as  him- 


84  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

self.  He  commits  them  to  faithful  men,  who 
shall  be  able  to  teach  others  also :  he  founds  a 
line  of  transmission  and  reproduction,  so  that 
each  generation,  when  they  have  reached  the 
end  of  their  stage,  passes  on  to  others  that  which 
has  been  committed  to  them.  He  can  establish 
no  other  system  of  keeping  the  truth  alive  on 
the  earth,  or  by  which  change  and  corruption 
may  be  more  effectually  checked  or  detected. 
And  the  utility  of  this  method  is  acknowledged 
by  all,  because  it  is  universally  adopted.  As  the 
Church,  by  her  constitution  acts,  so  we  find 
other  societies  act,  not  only  such  as  aim  at  esta- 
blishing themselves  permanently  as  instructors 
and  guides  to  the  people  in  religion,  but  those 
moreover  whose  object  is  the  preservation  of 
science,  or  learning,  or  art,  or  which  are  esta- 
blished for  other  purposes  of  general  utility. 
A  society  would  not  be  deemed  perfect  miless  it 
possessed  some  established  system  for  securing 
its  continuance  after  the  removal  by  death  of  its 
original  members.  Its  constitution  must  require 
that  new  members  be  from  time  to  time  admitted 
under  the  authority  of  their  predecessors  to  main- 
tain, as  it  were,  and  perpetuate  the  life  of  the  so- 
ciety; and  that  new  rulers  and  teachers  be  ap- 
proved and   authorized   and    commissioned  by 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  85 

those  who  have  themselves  been  approved  and 
authorized  and  commissioned,  who  may  carry 
forward  the  administration  of  affairs.  And  all 
this  is  done,  not  merely  that  they  may  be  pre- 
served as  a  society  from  generation  to  generation, 
but  that  with  their  own  they  might  gain  perpe- 
tuity also  for  the  ends  and  objects  for  which 
they  have  been  incorporated  in  their  purity  and 
integrity.  Now  it  cannot  be  that  this  econo- 
my should  be  of  less  utility  in  the  Church  than 
it  is  as  exercised  by  any  other  body.  It  will 
not,  indeed,  afford  sufficient  ground  for  inferring 
that  this  or  that  individual  teacher  of  the  Church 
is  necessarily  free  from  error,  or  that  the  entire 
Church  of  any  particular  country  maintains  the 
ti'uth  of  the  Gospel.  On  the  contrary,  w^e  know 
how  Churches  and  duly  constituted  ministers 
may  err  in  many  points  both  of  faith  and  prac- 
tice, and  that  without  God's  especial  blessing 
they  will  thus  err :  but  humanly  speaking,  this 
provision  is  the  security  we  possess  that  the 
truth  may  be  preserved ;  and  without  the  use  of 
the  means  with  which  we  have  been  entrusted, 
we  cannot  expect  the  end  to  be  attained.  Thus, 
if  we  reject  the  notion  of  the  Church's  oneness, 
and  admit  that  the  Church  consists  of  any  num- 
ber of  uncombined  societies  or  congregations  of 
8 


86  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

believers,  it  is  manifest  that  we  lose  all  that  se- 
curity which  the  Church  in  her  true  character 
most  certainly  affords.     If,  as  it  is  often  asserted, 
whoever  converts  a  number  of  heathens,  or  col- 
lects together  a  congregation  of  Christians,  and 
thus  acquires  a  kind  of  oversight  conceded  to 
him,  is  thereby  constituted  a  pastor,  and  his  flock 
an  integral  portion  of  the  Church  of  Christ :  then, 
the  essential  unity  of  the  Church  being  gone,  the 
benefit  which  might  be  derived  from  it  in  the  way 
of  preservation  of  the  truth  is  gone  also.     For 
such  a  teacher  comes  with  no  proof  of  his  com- 
mission, and  can  afTord  no  probable    evidence 
that  his  doctrine  is  not  some  novelty  of  his  own. 
Afterwards,  indeed,  he  may  point  to  his  success 
in  the  number  of  his  converts  and  disciples,  and 
may  appeal  to  their  character  as  the  evidence  of 
the  truth  and  soundness  of  his  instructions.     But 
this  comes  too  late;  he  needed  his  credentials 
before  his  disciples  were  gained ;  he  needed  them 
as  the  authority  upon  which  he  should  begin  to 
act.     And  now  that  they  have  become  his  dis- 
ciples, the  appeal  to  them  may  avail  so  far  as 
this,  it  proves  that  he  is  not  peculiar  in  his  opin- 
ions— that  certain  reasons  may  be  urged  which 
may  render  them  to  others  apparently  true,  and 
of  suflicient  importance  to  be  openly  professed ; 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  87 

but  that  they  are  not  new  doctrines,  that  they 
are  not  after  all  en-oneous  doctrmes,  the  appeal 
cannot  prove.  Any  man  endued  with  some 
share  of  natural  talent  may  rise  up  and  gain 
over  a  body  of  followers,  but  the  doctrine  which 
he  delivers  may  be  his  own  invention,  and  his 
creed  not  that  of  the  Church ;  while,  with  regard 
to  the  character  of  his  adherents,  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  to  a  certain  extent  a  party  may 
exhibit  many  tokens  of  godliness  and  virtue,  and 
yet  be  involved  in  great  and  serious  errors. 

But  whatever  weight  of  evidence,  in  favour 
of  any  doctrine,  we  might  be  willing  to  concede 
as  belonging  to  the  number  and  character  of  the 
converts,  still  this  cannot  justify  us  in  a  matter 
so  important  as  religious  truth,  in  neglecting  or 
despising  any  oilier  evidence,  if  any  other  may 
be  obtained.  The  reasonable  man  has  a  right  to 
say.  If  you  bring  a  new  revelation,  confirm  it  by 
miracles ;  if  you  bring  an  old  revelation,  Avhom 
can  you  name  as  your  vouchers,  that  what  you 
had  yourself  learned,  you  sufficiently  understood 
to  be  able  to  impart  it  to  others,  themselves 
being  authorised  to  commission  you }  Such  is 
the  test  which  the  organization  of  the  one  Church 
supplies.  Her  pastors  come  not  in  their  own 
name.  They  have  been  examined  and  ordained 
for  their  holy  functions  by  those  who  have  been 


88 


THE    ADYAXTAGES    AND    DUTY 


themselves  duly  appointed  to  that  office.  Here 
she  places  within  our  reach  the  means  of  proving 
and  preserving  the  truth;  and  though  they  may 
not  in  particular  cases  effectually  fulfil  their  de- 
sign, yet  men  are  not  wont,  in  ordinary  things, 
to  neglect  the  means  they  have  on  account  of 
occasional  want  of  success.  We  must  prize  the 
continued  perpetuity  of  the  Church  as  the  in- 
strument and  the  perpetuity  of  the  truth.  Her 
successive  oneness  is  the  security  we  have 
against  novelty  of  doctrine.  Hereby  has  she 
been  able  to  hand  down  the  creeds  and  doctrines 
of  early  times;  and  hereby,  from  generation  to 
generation,  has  she  stood  forth  as  the  guardian 
and  witness  of  the  Holy  Scriptures;  and  in  her 
future  perpetuity  we  may  look  for  the  contin- 
uance of  tliese  inestimable  benefits. 

Hitherto  we  have  been  considering  only  those 
benefits  which  the  Church  affords  in  her-  general 
character  as  one  society  of  heJievers :  benefits 
which,  in  different  degrees,  may  belong  to  other 
institutions,  in  their  outward  character  of  a  si- 
milar nature  with  the  Church.  But  when  we 
come  to  those  particulars  in  which  the  Church 
stands  distinct  from  all  other  institutions,  and 
whereby  it  is  specially  defined,  then  we  may  ex- 
pect to  discover  benefits  and  advantages  which 
are  peculiarly  its  own. 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  89 

The  Church  is  distinffuished  from 

,,         ,  .....  .  IV.  Benefits 

all   other  societies  in  being-  in   one  which  the 
unbroken  continuance  up  to  the  time  5^'"^''^^  af- 

-'  fords  as  hav- 

of  those  great  events^  recorded  in  ing  its  origin 
Gospel  history^  which  it  commemo-  ^" 
rates.  It  is  one,  through  all  past  generations, 
up  to  the  revelation  of  the  faith  by  Christ  Je- 
sus our  Lord.  It  was  founded  when  the  facts 
upon  which  it  is  based  were  before  the  eyes 
and  observations  of  every  one;  and  it  spread 
itself  through  the  world,  from  the  very  spot 
where  those  facts  took  place.  It  thus  affords 
no  small  evidence  to  the  truths  which  it  teaches. 
Imagine  that  the  Church  of  the  present  day  had 
been  first  combined  into  a  body  long  subse- 
quently to  the  life  and  resurrection  of  our  Sa- 
viour, and  the  commission  which  He  delivered 
to  his  Apostles — that  is,  suppose  it  had  not 
been  one  society  from  the  very  first,  but  an  in- 
stitution of  later  times.  In  this  case  the  unbe- 
liever would  have  a  fair  ground  of  objection 
against  the  Christian  faith.  He  would  plausibly 
urge  that  it  would  be  no  difficult  thing  for  in- 
genious men  to  have  worked  up  a  few  old  ac- 
knowledged facts,  or  vague  traditionary  reports, 
and  to  have  grounded  upon  them  many  false- 
hoods and  forgeries,  which  then  would  pass 
8* 


90  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

undetected  under  cover  of  much  which  had 
formerly  been  received.  But  at  the  period 
when  the  facts  actually  took  place  this  could 
not  be.  At  that  particular  time  unmixed  truth 
would  be  essential  to  the  success  of  its  institu- 
tion. Forgeries,  however  artfully  interwoven, 
could  not  possibly  have  escaped  detection. 
And,  therefore,  since  the  Church  was  then  suc- 
cessfully instituted,  the  events  to  which  it  bears 
witness  must  unquestionably  be  true.  The 
great  substitute  which  we  have  for  the  eye- 
witness to  the  facts  themselves,  is  the  eye-wit- 
ness to  the  institution  to  which  those  facts  at 
the  time  gave  rise.  The  Church  is  a  standing 
memorial,  an  historical  document,  as  it  were, 
and  witness  of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  narra- 
tive, just  as  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews  over 
the  whole  world  is  a  still  continuing  proof  of 
the  truth  of  that  remarkable  dispensation  re- 
corded in  the  Old  Testament,  under  which  they 
were  placed.  It  is  both  the  pillar,  and  also  the 
ground  of  truth;  for  while  as  a  pillar  it  up- 
holds and  publishes,  and  secures  the  truth ;  as 
"the  ground,"  it  is  the  evidence  and  proof 
upon  which  we  receive  it. 

But  the  Church,  one  in  continual  succession 
up  to  the  time  to  which  we  have  ascribed  it, 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  91 

■was  also  the  actual  institution  of  Christ.  It 
■vvas  founded  by  Him,  who,  aUhoiigh  bearmg 
the  form  of  a  servant,  and  the  likeness  of  man, 
thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God, 
whom  God  hath  now  again  highly  exalted,  and 
hath  set  at  his  own  right  hand  in  heavenly 
places,  having  put  all  things  under  his  feet. 
Here  we  ground  the  pre-eminent  advantages 
which  the  Church  claims  to  afford.  If  benefits, 
many  and  great,  may  be  found  in  the  wise  regu- 
lations and  well-designed  institutions  of  men 
like  ourselves,  shall  we  not  reasonably  expect 
yet  higher  benefits  in  the  institution  of  the 
God-man?  May  we  not  justly  infer  that  this 
institution  shall  not  only  possess  a  superior 
degree  of  excellence  in  those  respects  in  which 
ordinary  societies  may  be  found  useful,  but 
shall  also  furnish  more  excellent  blessings  and 
advantages  of  its  own?  Is  the  Church,  in  a 
natural  and  merely  human  point  of  view,  as 
any  other  society  might  be,  a  valuable  expe- 
dient for  the  perpetuity  and  continuance  of  the 
truths  which  she  teaches? — under  its  divine 
Head  we  receive  an  additional  security  that  this 
important  object  shall  not  be  frustrated,  for  He 
has  said,  "Lo,  I  am  with  you  always  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world."     Again :  Is  the  Church, 


92  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

considering  it  as  a  mere  society,  an  instrument 
adapted  by  its  organization  for  imparting  in- 
struction and  consolation  to  its  members  ? — her 
ministers  can  now  enforce  their  message  by 
saying,  "We  are  ambassadors  for  Christ,  as 
though  God  did  beseech  you  by  us."  Does 
the  Church,  in  her  external  constitution,  supply 
the  means  of  discipline?  That  discipline  is 
rendered  more  solemn,  its  authority  of  more 
weight,  by  being  under  the  sanction  of  God 
Himself.  "Whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on  earth 
shall  be  bound  in  heaven ;  whatsoever  ye  shall 
loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven." 
Does  the  Church,  as  a  mere  society,  afford  the 
opportunity  of  united  worship?  As  a  body 
founded  by  Christ,  in  whose  name  our  prayers 
are  addressed  to  God,  by  whose  merits  alone 
they  are  accepted,  we  have  especial  ground  for 
believing  that  its  supplications  shall  not  be  of- 
fered in  vain.  And  has  the  Church  her  bonds 
of  union  and  fraternity  in  her  outAvard  sacra- 
ments? These,  as  the  institution  of  Christ 
Himself,  as  perpetual  ordinances  from  God  to 
man,  acquire  new  dignity  and  virtues ;  they  be- 
come the  pledges  and  instruments  of  spiritual 
union  and  communion  with  the  Church  at 
large,  and  with  the  Triune  God.     Thus,  while 


OF    ME3IBERSHIP.  93 

instruction  and  discipline,  and  common  assem- 
blings and  badges  of  union,  may  be  advantages 
gained  and  enjoyed  by  other  societies  exter- 
nally of  a  similar  character,  none  can  place 
their  instruction,  their  discipline,  their  religious 
meetings,  their  badges  of  union,  on  a  par  with 
those  of  the  Church,  because  the  Church  alone 
has  been  founded  by  Christ.  For  no  body  of 
men  can  possess  more  authority  or  endowments 
than  those  who  have  founded  it.  Human 
founders,  whatever  they  may  devise  that  is 
good  and  useful,  cannot  confer  more  than  hu- 
man gifts  and  this  world's  advantages.  But 
whatever  man  can  offer  that  is  advantageous  in 
the  profession  of  a  common  faith,  that  surely 
can  Christ  offer,  who  was  perfect  man,  while  as 
God  He  was  to  bestow  upon  his  institution 
blessings  and  privileges  and  gifts,  which  no 
human  power  can  control.  The  ti'uest  happi- 
ness, in  the  sense  of  the  forgiveness  and  love  of 
God,  and  peace  of  mind  which  passeth  all  un- 
derstanding, union  with  God,  and  communion, 
or  participation  and  fellowship  in  his  divine  na- 
ture, grace  here,  and  glory  hereafter;  these  are 
some  of  the  gifts  which  He  has  the  power  and 
will  to  bestow,  who  has  come  down  to  earth 
and  built  here  a  church  of  living  stones,  found- 


94  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

ing  it  upon  apostles  and  prophets,  and  securing 
it  on  Himself  as  the  corner-stone. 

Duty  of  Now  it  is  on  these  advantages  and 

member-        blessings  wliich  the  Church  of  Christ 
^*  affords,  that  we  ground  and  justify 

our  own  adherence  to  it,  and  are  induced  to  call 
upon  the  world  at  large  to  join  it  also.  The 
single  reflection,  that  He  who  has  founded  it  is 
our  Lord  and  Saviour,  He  from  whom  our  hopes 
descend,  and  through  whom  our  worship  is  di- 
rected to  Heaven,  must  be  sufficient  to  enforce 
the  duty,  and  prove  the  obligations  we  are  under 
to  be  members  of  his  Church.  The  Church,  it 
is  true,  is  a  voluntary  society.  It  is  not  founded 
by  war  and  violence ;  it  does  not  stand  by  the 
arm  of  the  civil  power,  nor  does  it  need  to  be 
protected  by  the  terrors  of  human  law.  We 
are  not  forced  to  join  it,  or  to  continue  in  it 
against  our  will.  But  as  instituted  by  our 
Lord  and  Saviour,  there  is  a  high  moral  obliga- 
tion to  belong  to  it:  and  to  those  who  do  be- 
long to  it  the  same  ground  affords  a  high  moral 
obligation  to  adhere  to  its  order  and  regula- 
tions. For  although,  as  just  stated,  the  Church 
is  a  voluntary  society,  yet  this  does  not  mean 
that  it  may  be  obeyed  or  disregarded  at  will : 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  95 

its  authority  is  nothing  which  proceeds  from 
its  constituted  members,  its  authority  is  one 
which  it  has  received  from  its  Head,  and  which 
man  can  neither  give  nor  take  away.  The 
joining  the  Church  is  not  the  assigning  and 
making  over  to  her  ministers  a  certain  power 
over  ourselves,  but  an  acknowledgment  of  an 
authority  and  commission  which  they  have  re- 
ceived as  the  guides  and  pastors  of  the  Church. 

And  if  so  great  are  the  blessings  Member- 
and  benefits  arising  from  the  Church,  church  may 
and  so  great  our  obligation  to  be-  ^e  lost, 
long,  as  members,  to  its  sacred  company,  we, 
who  are  already  within  its  pale,  do  well  with 
zealous  care  to  guard  our  privileges  in  the  unity 
of  the  Church,  and  to  fear  to  lose  them.  For 
these  are  benefits  which  may  be  lost.  The 
unity  or  oneness  of  the  Church  cannot  itself  be 
broken,  but  we  may  be  broken  off  from  that 
unity,  and  cease  to  be  of  that  one  Church. 
The  Spirit  may  take  its  flight,  its  quickening 
warmth  and  life  be  quenched,  and  the  branch 
which  was  once  grafted  in  be  left  dead  and  lost. 
And  if  the  Spirit  be  wholly  withdrawn,  then 
membership  in  the  Church  must  altogether  and 
for  ever  cease.  ^ 

'  1  Thess.  V.  19.    Heb.  vi.  4—6, 


96  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

Such  a  fearful  state  we  know  may,  and  does 
exist,  but  where  no  man  may  presume  to  pro- 
nounce. Of  this  awful  state  of  perdition  and 
reprobation  of  those  from  whom  the  Spirit  has 
once  and  for  ever  removed,  it  is  not  within  the 
power  even  of  the  Church  to  declare  that  it  is 
the  state  of  any  individual.  All  she  can  declare 
is,  that  the  state  may  be;  but  of  whom  it  is  the 
condition,  at  least  while  life  may  last,  knoweth 
no  man.  The  open  and  professed  apostate 
might  seem,  indeed,  to  be  thus  lost,  but  so  long 
as  there  is  life,  so  long  may  we  hope  that  the 
apostate  may  return;  and  that  return  would 
miply  that  spiritual  life  still  remained,  that  his 
privileges  were  not  wholly  forfeited.  The 
Spirit  strives  long  with  man,  and  if  he  return 
and  rise  again,  it  must  still  be  the  Spirit's  work. 
Hence  it  has  always  been  held  by  the  Church 
that  baptism  cannot  be  repeated.  If  peace  and 
reconciliation  is  again  sought  by  one  who  has 
been  estranged  from  her,  that  act  may  be  taken 
as  proof  that  he  may  still  be  accounted  in  the 
unity  of  the  Church,  without  a  fresh  admission 
into  it  by  the  sacrament  of  baptism. 
The  benefits  ^"^  although  we  cannot  declare  of 
of  the  Church  any  that  the  privileg-es  which  he  has 

may  be  with-        "^   .  ^  ^     ^        ^^ 

held  from  its  received,  as  member  of  the  Church 
members,       ^f  Q^j.|gj^  ^^^  wholly  and  for  ever 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  97 

lost,  that  though  he  was  once  in  the  unhy  of 
the  Church,  he  is  now  no  longer  there,  yet  we 
are  often  by  certain  outward  signs  able  to  dis- 
cover cases  in  which,  though  a  man  may  still 
be  in  the  Church,  and  in  covenant-right  to  his 
Christian  privileges,  he  manifestly  neither  en- 
joys them  nor  partakes  of  them. 

Now  these  external  signs  or  marks  are  to  be 
drawn  from  the  definition  given  of  the  Church 
of  Christ.  In  that  definition  are  included  the 
main  essentials  which  must  outwardly  distin- 
guish its  members,  namely,  profession  of  fa'ith^ 
and  union  in  the  one  society  of  Chrisfs  institu- 
tion. Now  if  in  either  of  these  points  there  is 
found  in  any  individual  baptized  into  the  Church 
an  acknowledged  deficiency,  then  we  may  infer, 
not  indeed  that  he  ceases  to  be  of  the  Church, 
but  that  he  ceases  to  enjoy  the  privileges  to 
which  as  member  he  is  entitled.  Hence  we 
lay  down  as  manifestly  mvolving  a  loss  of 
Church  privileges, — 

Open  apostacy  from  the  Christian  faith. 

Separation  from  the  society  of  the  Church  of 
Christj  either  by  excommunication,  or  by  an 
open  and  voluntary  withdrawal  from  her  com- 
munion. 
9 


98  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

throuEh  their  The  lirst  of  these  will  not,  per- 
apostacy.  haps,  Suggest  any  difficulty  or  objec- 
tion. How  can  he  be  deemed  benefited  by  the 
covenant  which  God  made  with  him  in  baptism, 
who  has  by  open  declaration  and  voluntary  re- 
nunciation professed  himself  a  disbeliever  ?  He 
was  made  partaker  of  the  Church's  blessings 
upon  "the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  to- 
wards God,"  and  upon  his  open  renunciation  of 
his  Saviour  we  may  surely  declare  those  bless- 
ings withheld.  The  promise  is,  "He  that  be- 
lieveth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved,"  but  no 
sacrament  of  baptism  is  spoken  of  as  of  any 
efficacy  or  avail  in  the  curse  which  follows, 
"He  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned." 

We  have  stated  the  case  thus  strongly,  be- 
cause we  can  only  take  the  general  sentence  of 
the  unbeliever  on  himself,  and  decide  by  his 
open  and  unqualified  admission.  We  have  no 
right  to  receive  any  other  judgment.  Ourselves, 
however,  we  may  judge  more  stringently.  We 
need  not  wait  for  open  evidence  before  men,  of 
our  want  of  faith,  in  order  to  infer  that  we 
come  short  of  the  blessings  to  which  we  have 
been  called.  We  cannot  be  partakers  of  the 
blessings  of  the  Church,  if  the  creed  of  the 
Church  is  not  our  creed;  if  we  do  not  live  a 


excom- 
municaiion, 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  99 

life  of  faith,  and  obey  God  in  a  faithful  spirit. 
The  word  does  not  profit  when  not  mixed  with 
Aiith  in  them  that  hear;  the  communion  of 
prayer  or  of  sacrament  is  ineffectual  and  dead, 
and  brings  no  help  and  sustenance  to  the  unbe- 
lieving soul. 

The  second  case  which  (in  various  By 
degrees)  manifestly  involves  the  loss 
of  Church  privileges,  is  the  Church's  act  of 
excommunication.  For,  being  a  society,  its  offi- 
cers have  the  authority  of  withholding  its  sacra- 
ments and  outward  privileges  from  unwort?iy 
members.  The  Church  does  not,  indeed,  as 
has  been  already  stated,  reverse  baptism,  for 
then  the  offender,  so  cut  off,  and,  as  it  were, 
ungrafted,  could  never  again  be  restored.  lie 
would  need  admission  by  a  second  baptism, 
and  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Church,  founded 
upon  Scripture,  that  baptism  cannot  be  repeat- 
ed.* In  common  language,  indeed,  the  excom- 
municated person  is  sometimes  said  to  be  cut 
off  from  the  unity  of  the  Church ;  but  this  ex- 
pression is  to  be  understood  as  implying  a 
separation,  not  from  the  essential  oneness  of 
the  Church  of  Christ,  but  from  the  state    of 


Eph.  iv.  5.    Nicene  Creed. 


100  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

union  or  imitedness,  which  its  faithful  members 
are  bound  to  maintain,  and  from  the  privilege 
of  uniting  with  them  in  holy  worship.  A  son 
disinherited,  and  cast  out  from  his  father's  fami- 
ly, is  no  longer  in  a  state  of  friendly  inter- 
course with  the  other  members,  and  forfeits  his 
share  of  the  dignity  and  wealth  of  the  family, 
but  he  retains  the  bond  of  birth  and  blood 
which  unites  him  with  them  still.  And  thus 
the  Church  does  not  strictly  cut  off  the  offender 
from  the  membership  to  which  he  has  once 
been  admitted,  but  from  the  use  and  enjoyment 
of  it,  and  the  privileges  it  otherwise  entitles 
him  to.  As  the  name  implies,  excommunica- 
tion is  simply  the  prohibition  from  communion, 
which  may  be  either  in  the  Holy  Eucharist 
alone,  or  altogether  in  the  prayers  and  society 
of  the  faithful ;  we  cannot  go  further  and  say, 
it  cuts  him  off  wholly  from  the  one  Church. 
Now,  if  it  is  a  high  privilege  to  be  made  a 
member  of  the  Church,  it  must  be  deemed  pro- 
portionally a  heavy  loss  to  be  placed  beneath 
its  ban.  These  are  the  corresponding  exercises 
of  power  for  blessing  or  for  punishment  with 
which  its  officers  have  been  intrusted;  and  if 
we  deny  the  terrors  of  excommunication,  we 
deny  the  beneiits  to  which  we  were  admitted  in 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  101 

baptism.  The  same  ministers  who  are  commis- 
sioned to  receive  into  the  Church,  are  by  the 
same  authority  commissioned  also  to  withhold 
from  its  communion,  and  its  members,  as  they 
are  sensible  of  the  true  nature  of  their  society, 
will  respect  and  reverence  the  execution  of  its 
solemn  discipline. 

Thirdly:  an  open  and  voluntary  , trough  their 
act  of  separation  from  the  society  of  separation  of 
Christ's  Church  must  be  considered  from  her  '^ 
as  equally  involving  the  loss  of  the  co™"iu«ion- 
privileges  which  the  Church  conveys.  Admis- 
sion into  the  Church  requires  conjointly  the 
profession  of  faith  and  also  association  in 
Christ's  society;  and  this  twofold  idea  of  the 
Church  must  lead  us  to  infer  that  Church  privi- 
leges are  lost  not  only  by  the  rejection  of  the 
faith,  but  also  by  the  separation  from  the  so- 
ciety. If  that  separation  is  the  act  of  the 
Church,  it  is  called  excommunication,  which 
we  have  already  considered;  but  it  may  also 
take  place  by  the  act  of  the  individual  who 
separates,  and  it  is  this  which  comes  now  be- 
fore our  notice. 

In  judging  ourselves  mdividually,  the  separa- 
tion must  be  deemed  to  consist  in  any  neglect 
of  Church  order  and  Church  communion,  with- 
9* 


102  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

out  sufficient  reason.  Such  neglect,  then,  must 
be  considered  to  involve,  according  to  its  de- 
gree, the  loss  of  many  of  the  benefits,  natural 
and  spiritual,  to  which  by  our  new  birthright 
we  have  been  admitted ;  and  argues  insensibility 
to  the  blessings  belonging  to  our  covenant 
state.  Our  present  design,  however,  is  rather 
to  consider  the  Church,  as  it  may  be  seen  and 
judged  of  in  the  case  of  men  in  general.  We 
must  base  our  judgment,  therefore,  on  plain 
and  acknowledged  facts,  and  the  separation 
from  the  society  of  the  Church  must  be  an 
overt-act  on  the  part  of  the  individual  before 
we  can  deem  him  to  have  forfeited,  for  the  time, 
the  enjoyment  of  baptismal  privileges. 

Now  an  overt-act,  whereby  the  Church  is  re- 
nounced, is  plainly  the  setting  up,  or  the  joining 
a  society,  which,  not  being  one  with  the  Church, 
by  lawful  succession  from  the  founder,  Christ, 
yet  claims  to  be  regarded  as  if  it  were  a  portion 
of  the  Church  of  Christ.  It  may  be  like  the 
Church  in  many,  perhaps  in  all  its  outward  cha- 
racteristics :  it  may  be  desirous  of  avoiding  any 
thing  like  rivalry  or  hostility  towards  those  who 
do  not  belong  to  it,  but  it  cannot  in  truth  be  a 
church,  because  destitute  of  the  essential  prin- 
ciple of  unity :  it  has  a  different  founder,  and  a 


OF    MEMBERSHIP. 


103 


different  beg-inning.  It  is  a  new  society,  and  it 
is  no  more  possible  for  a  man  to  form  a  wholly 
new  independent  society,  wliicli  shall  be  part  of 
the  Church,  than  it  is  for  any  in  the  present  day 
to  compose  a  poem  which  shall  be  part  of  the 
works  of  Homer.  And  if  such  a  society  be,  not- 
withstanding, regarded  by  its  members  as  if  it 
Avere  a  church  •  if  it  be  regarded  as  tlie  appointed 
instrument  for  religious  instruction  and  the 
means  of  spiritual  grace :  if  it  be  placed  for  and 
in  the  stead  of  the  Church,  having  its  own  sepa- 
rate assemblies,  its  own  separate  sacraments,  its 
own  separate  ministers,  all  in  the  place  of  the 
assemblies  and  sacraments  and  ministers  of  the 
Church,  claiming  the  same  spiritual  office  and 
authority,  then  the  joining  it  must  be  a  virtual 
renunciation  of  the  true  Church.  For  we  can- 
not profess  two  faiths,  or  belong,  as  it  were,  to 
two  churches.  If  the  new  one  claims  to  answer 
all  the  ends  of  the  old  one,  it  comes  not  as  a 
subsidiary,  but  as  a  substitute ;  not  to  be  added 
to  it,  but  to  be  taken  in  exchange ;  and  those 
who  make  the  exchange  acquire  whatever  benefit 
the  new  society  is  capable  of  affording;  they  can- 
not retain  the  benefits  of  the  society  which  they 
resign  in  its  favour. 

From  what  has  now  been  said  respecting  com- 


104  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

munities  for  Christian  worship  not  in  the  unity 
of  the  Church,  it  may  not  be  inferred  that  their 
members  have  ceased  altogether  to  be  mem- 
bers of  the  Church.  On  the  contrary,  (as  it  has 
already  been  stated)  it  is  wholly  out  of  the  power 
of  man  to  pass  so  heavy  a  sentence  upon  any 
individual:  and  we  know  that  so  long  as  life 
may  last,  the  privileges  to  which  baptism  has 
conferred  the  title,  though  they  may  have  been 
long  neglected  and  withheld,  may  by  God's  grace 
be  again  restored.  We  must  still,  therefore,  ac- 
count them  within  the  pale  of  the  Church,  if 
they  have  been  validly  received  into  it  by  the 
sacrament  of  baptism.  But  on  the  other  hand, 
because  the  individuals  composing  these  reli- 
gious communities  are  allowed  to  be  members 
of  Christ's  Church,  we  cannot  infer  from  this 
that  therefore  their  society  is  in  the  unity  of 
the  Church.  They  may  be  individually  of  the 
Church,  but  at  the  same  time  the  body  which 
they  constitute  for  the  purpose  of  religious  wor- 
ship and  discipline,  may  be  no  part  of  the  Church. 
These  distinctions  are  important,  and  it  will  be 
useful  to  make  them  plain  by  an  illustration  or 
two.  Thus,  a  club  might  consist  M'holly  of  mem- 
bers of  parliament,  but  it  would  not  consequently 
be  a  parliament.     They   might  meet,  perhaps, 


OF    MEMBERSHIP. 


105 


for  deliberation  on  the  affairs  of  the  country, 
they  might  conduct  business  precisely  as  busi- 
ness is  conducted  in  the  house  of  commons,  but 
still  they  are  no  parliament,  and  their  acts  of  no 
real  authority  in  the  state.  Again,  the  Society 
for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  or  that  for 
Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  we  may  rea- 
sonably assume  are  societies  composed  entirely 
of  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ;  but  this 
circumstance  of  the  character  and  faith  of  their 
members  does  not  make  those  societies  parts  of 
the  Church.  Nor  again,  (reversing  the  argument) 
because  these  societies  are  no  parts  of  the  Church 
of  Christ,  are  we  to  infer  that  their  members  are 
not  members  of  the  Church }  They  are  socie- 
ties of  Church  people,  but  not  churches;  and 
they  aim  at  fulfilling  their  important  objects,  the 
extending  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom,  without 
claiming  to  be  more  than  human  societies. 
These  illustrations,  applied  to  the  case  before 
us,  will  serve  to  show  that  to  be  a  Church-mem- 
ber, and  at  the  same  time  member  of  a  society 
which  is  not  a  church,  is  nothing  inconsistent  or 
contradictory.  It  is  absurd  to  argue,  that  because 
the  members  of  a  religious  community  are 
Christians,  and  have  been  baptized  into  the 
Church,  therefore  their  community  is  a  Church ; 


106  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

and  if  we  say  that  their  society  is  not  a  Church, 
it  is  equally  unreasonable  to  infer  that  we  deny 
that  those  who  belong  to  it  are  Church-members. 
To  return  from  this  digression,  let  it  be  clearly 
understood  what  it  is  which  we  have  stated  to 
be  a  declaration  or  overt-act  of  separation  from 
the  communion  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  To 
make  or  found  a  society  is  a  measure  which  any 
man  is  justified  in  doing,  provided  the  object  it 
has  in  view,  and  the  means  to  be  pursued,  are 
lawful  and  good.  There  is  nothing  in  the  ob- 
ligation of  Church  membership  which  interferes 
with  this;  on  the  contrary,  it  may  often  be  a 
method  by  which  Christian  benevolence  and 
kindness  may  be  most  beneficially  exercised. 
That  which  is  here  condemned,  is  the  originat- 
ing or  joining  any  society  in  the  place  of,  and 
instead  of,  the  Church;  a  society  which  claims 
to  be  a  Church,  although  it  had  not  its  begin- 
ning as  a  society  from  our  Lord.  The  error  is 
not  in  the  founding  of  a  society,  but  in  its  false 
title  and  claims,  as  we  should  condemn  such  a 
club  as  we  just  now  imagined,  not  because  it 
consisted  of  members  of  parliament,  but  if  it 
usurped  the  prerogatives  and  powers  of  parlia- 
ment, without  being  duly  summoned  and  au- 
thorized according  to  the    constitution  of  the 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  107 

country.  No  society  can  justly  take  to  itself 
the  name  of  Church,  unless  "  the  Lord"  is  the 
beginner  and  founder.  But  if  that  name  be  by 
any  body  of  men  unjustly  usurped,  it  thereby 
claims  to  itself,  though  of  earthly  origin,  powers 
and  attributes  which  a  divine  founder  only  can 
communicate.  It  casts  dishonour,  often  un- 
willingly indeed,  upon  Him  in  whom  we  trust, 
even  while,  perhaps,  it  most  desires  to  honour 
him.  It  thrusts  out  the  Church,  to  place  itself 
in  its  room ;  and  can  we  doubt,  but  that  with  the 
Church  it  rejects  and  forfeits  the  Church's  bless- 
ing also  ?  It  was  in  this  way  that  Wesley  view- 
ed the  subject,  when  he  earnestly  forbade  his 
followers  to  apply  to  his  society  the  designa- 
tion of  "Church."  Individually,  he  knew,  they 
had  been  admitted  into  Christ's  family ;  but  how 
could  that  be  a  portion  of  the  Church,  or  those 
assemblies  of  the  Church,  which  he  felt  that  he 
himself  on  his  own  judgment  had  originated.^ 
However  pure  the  doctrines  of  his  society,  how- 
ever perfect  its  discipline,  however  edifying  its 
mode  of  worship,  still  he  dared  not  place  it  in 
the  room  of  Christ's  institution,  he  dared  not 
make  it  a  substitute  for  the  Church,  or  call  it  by 
the  Church's  name. 

Perhaps,  some  of  my  readers  may  have  heard 


108  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

it  said,  It  is  the  duty  of  every  one  who  desires 
faithfully  to  serve  God  to  join  some  religious 
community.  First,  let  me  remind  them  in  re- 
ply, that  they  have  already  joined  a  religious 
community  in  the  holy  Catholic  Church,  if  in- 
deed they  are  baptized.  But  they  mean,  that  it 
is  the  duty  of  every  one  to  join  some  religious 
community  in  the  way  of  actual  participation  or 
communion  with  them  in  worship  and  sacra- 
ments; and,  in  this  sense,  I  cordially  join  in 
saying  that  such  is  indeed  the  duty  of  every 
one.  But  can  there  be  any  doubt  Avhat  reli- 
gious community  that  must  be  which  they 
join?  Shall  it  not  be  that  one  community 
founded  by  our  Redeemer,  and  blessed  by  his 
divine  blessing.^  It  is  the  duty  of  every  one 
who  has  been  called  to  the  knowledge  of  God's 
grace  and  faith  in  Christ,  to  join  his  Church's 
communion,  and  aiming  in  all  things  to  pre- 
serve the  peace  and  concord  of  his  Church  on 
earth,  to  serve  and  honour  him  in  it  as  his  own 
institution.  Without  this,  none  can  expect  to 
enjoy  its  privileges,  and  partake  of  its  blessings. 
In  neglecting  his  institution  we  neglect  Christ, 
who  in  his  wisdom  has  seen  it  needful  to  ap- 
point it  for  our  use.  Let  us  put,  by  way  of  il- 
lustration, a  similar  case.     God  has  given  us  his 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  109 

revealed  will,  that  by  it  we  may  guide  our  lives 
aright;  and  the  possession  of  it  may  indeed  be 
looked  upon  as  a  treasure.  But  can  we  be  at 
all  the  richer  for  it,  if  we  never  use  it;  and  do 
we  not  neglect  God,  in  neglecting  his  Word } 
Without  it  we  might  have  reasonably  searched 
out  ourselves  some  standard  of  instruction, 
though  it  were  only  the  Avork  of  man ;  but  if 
with  the  gift  of  the  Bible  in  our  hands,  we  take 
human  guides,  not  to  explain  it,  but  as  substi- 
tutes for  it ;  if  we  call  them  our  Bible,  and  say, 
"whatever  is  good  must  be  God's  word" — "it 
matters  not  what  religious  book  we  adopt,  so 
as  we  learn  the  way  of  salvation;"  do  we  not 
by  all  this  undervalue  God's  gifts,  and  openly 
and  before  the  eyes  of  all  men  deprive  ourselves 
of  the  benefit  He  had  designed  it  should  con- 
vey.? And  so,  if  God  had  only  called  to  us 
from  heaven,  and  invited  us  generally  to  be 
followers  of  Him,  but  left  us  to  find  out  for 
ourselves  the  way  to  serve  Him  here,  we  might 
be  doing  well  in  planning  out  our  own  different 
schemes,  and  unions,  and  methods,  and  joining 
whatever  party  seemed  to  us  best  able  to  help 
us  forward.  But  if  He  has  left  his  throne  on 
high,  and  comes  down  as  man,  and  forms  on 
earth  his  own  society,  and  says.  In  this  my 
10 


110  THE    ADVANTAGES    AND    DUTY 

family  you  must  prepare  yourselves  for  the  in- 
heritance I  am  making  for  you  hereafter,  and 
here  you  may  receive  my  assistance  and  grace, 
then  must  we  joyfully  receive  his  appointed 
method,  and  the  society  which  he  has  seen  it 
good  to  create.  There  must  be  no  indifference 
when  God  has  fixed  a  plan;  we  must  not  seek 
out  for  ourselves  earthly  props  and  human 
helps,  and  place  them  in  the  stead  of  the  help 
which  He  has  ordained.  Christ  has  said,  He 
that  receiveth  whomsoever  I  send,  receiveth 
Me;  and  he  that  receiveth  Me,  receiveth  Him 
that  sent  Me:  and  shall  we  deem  it  matters 
little  whom  we  receive .''  Christ  has  bid  us  be 
of  one  body:  shall  we  say,  we  will  choose  our 
own  companions,  and  form  our  own  "  Church  ?" 
Christ,  as  it  were,  has  said,  "This  is  the  way, 
walk  ye  in  it;"  and  shall  we  say,  "It  matters 
nothing  which  road  we  take,  so  as  we  reach 
heaven  at  last.^'** — ^No,  we  dare  not.  We  can- 
not escape  this  conclusion: — if  we  neglect  or 
despise  that  institution  which  Christ  came  down 
to  earth  to  establish,  we  deprive  ourselves  of  its 
inestimable  benefits,  and  as  far  as  in  us  lies,  di- 
minish and  weaken  its  utility  to  mankind  in 
general.  We  manifest  this  neglect,  by  joining 
another  society  in  the  place  of  it;  we  openly 


OF    MEMBERSHIP.  Ill 

dishonour  God  and  our  Saviour,  by  esteeming 
man's  work  as  equal  with  his,  and  presuming 
to  prefer  the  advantages  which  may  arise  from 
a  human  society  to  those  Mdiich  can  exist  only 
in  the  Church  of  Christ. 

And  now  our  responsibility  is  before  us.  If 
we  have  been  received  into  Christ's  Church, 
and  if  we  prize  that  admission  as  a  privilege  of 
incalculable  value,  as  a  pledge  of  grace  here, 
and  of  glory  hereafter;  then  let  us  earnestly 
hold  fast  what  we  have  received,  that  no  man 
take  our  crown. 

We  have  a  faith  to  maintain,  in  its  integrity, 
in  its  sincerity,  in  its  holy  fruits  and  graces. 

We  have  to  preserve  all  the  attributes  and 
characteristics  of  a  society,  subordination  and 
discipline,  and  assembling  of  ourselves  together, 
and  holy  communion  and  brotherly  love. 

We  have  to  maintain  this  subordination  and 
concord  in  the  one  society,  which  our  Lord 
has  founded  for  the  whole  world,  where  He 
has  recorded  his  name,  and  will  come  unto  us 
and  bless  us. 

These  are  the  duties  to  be  observed  by  those 
who,  feeling  the  great  benefits  of  the  Church, 
both  to  themselves  and  the  world  at  large,  de- 
sire that  the  good-will  of  God  to  man  may  not 


112       ADVANTAGES  AND  DUTY  OF  MEMBERSHIP. 

be  frustrated  by  them.  And  thus  entitled  to  the 
Gospel  promises,  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  the 
means  of  grace,  in  union  with  the  saints  in 
Heaven  and  in  earth,  and  with  God  Himself, 
his  living  members  shall  grow  up  into  Him  in 
all  things,  which  is  the  Head,  even  Christ;  and 
hereafter  with  his  whole  family  in  Heaven  and 
earth  be  presented  to  Himself  a  glorious  Church, 
not  having  spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing; 
but  holy  and  without  blemish. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  CHARACTER,  AS  RESULTING 
FROM  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  WHAT  THE 
CHURCH    OF    CHRIST    IS. 

r[ERE  is  a  very  striking  passage  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  book  of  Isaiah,  in  which 
the  Lord  expostulates  with  the  children  of  Is- 
rael for  their  forgetfulness  of  Him  and  of  his 
covenant.  "The  ox  (He  says)  knoweth  his 
owner,  and  the  ass  his  master's  crib,  but  Israel 
doth  not  know,  my  people  doth  not  consider." 
He  had  chosen  them  as  his  peculiar  people.  He 
had  exhibited  wonderful  manifestations  of  his 
immediate  care  and  guardianship  over  them: 
He  had  given  them  laws,  and  made  with  them 
especial  covenants  of  mercy.  They  had  per- 
petual proofs  and  memorials  of  these  things  in 
their  historical  records,  in  their  religious  ser- 
vices, in  their  priesthood,  in  their  prophets; 
and  yet,  notwithstanding  all,  they  were  insensi- 
10* 


114  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

ble  to  their  covenant  state.  They  did  not,  as 
Moses  had  admonished  them,  from  all  the  to- 
kens which  God  had  given  them,  "know  and 
consider  it  in  their  hearts  that  the  Lord  he  is 
God,  there  is  none  else."  They  forgat  that 
God  was  their  Saviour,  the  Most  High  God 
their  Redeemer.  They  retained  no  sense  of 
the  high  relation  with  God  in  which  they  had 
been  placed;  no  recollection  of  his  covenant. 
They  were  God's  children,  but  without  the 
feeling  in  their  hearts  of  being  his  children, 
and  of  his  being  their  Father.  They  were 
God's  people,  but  without  the  conviction  of 
being  his  covenant-people  on  their  minds,  mov- 
ing them  to  love  and  obedience,  and  filling 
their  hearts  with  thankfulness  and  praise.  The 
ox  knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  his  master's 
crib,  but  Israel  considered  not,  and  knew  not, 
that  they  were  purchased  by  a  heavenly  Lord, 
and  daily  fed  by  his  hand. 

Such  neglect  was  in  itself  a  sin  involving 
them  in  the  heaviest  guilt.  For,  not  to  describe 
it  in  its  full  heinousness,  but  to  bring  it  down 
to  the  level  of  an  offence  against  a  fellow-crea- 
ture, it  was  a  display  of  the  deepest  ingratitude. 
The  offence  which  we  are  apt  to  look  upon  as 
above  all   others  contemptible,  and  unworthy 


SENSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.         115 

even  when  shown  towards  men,  that  they  were 
^ilty  of  before  God.  But  the  evil  did  not  stop 
here.  From  not  "knowing-  and  considering" 
diligently  their  state  and  relation  with  God, 
they  came  to  rebel  against  Him  also.  The 
prophet  describes  them  as  a  sinful  nation,  a 
people  laden  with  iniquity,  a  seed  of  evil-doers, 
children  that  are  corrupters,  who  have  forsaken 
the  Lord,  and  provoked  the  Holy  One  of  Israel 
to  anger.  ^  And  if  we  turn  to  the  book  of 
Chronicles,  and  read  the  account  of  the  nation 
at  the  period  at  which  Isaiah  writes,  we  find 
how  true  the  description  was.  Isaiah  began  to 
prophesy  in  the  time  of  Uzziah,  Jotham,  and 
Ahaz;  and  of  the  first  of  these  it  is  recorded 
that  he  transgressed  against  the  Lord,  and  went 
into  the  temple  of  the  Lord  to  burn  incense 
instead  of  the  appointed  priests:*  in  the  time 
of  Jotham,  "the  people  did  corruptly:"^  and 
Ahaz  "made  images  for  Baalim,  .  .  .  and  burnt 
his  children  in  the  fire,  after  the  abominations 
of  the  heathen."*  Thus  was  "their  land  full 
of  idols :"" — and  if  heathen  nations  over  whom 
God  ruled  perhaps  by  the   agency  of  others 

^  Isa.  i.  4.  « 2  Chron.  xxvi.  16—20. 

^  2  Chron.  xxvii.  2.  *  2  Chron.  xxviii.  2,  3. 


116  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

alone,  and  less  immediately  by  Himself,  were 
accounted  sinful  and  profane  by  idolatry,  how 
much  more  must  they  have  been  so  esteemed 
over  whom  Jehovah  declares  Himself  a  present 
King,  and  to  whom  the  same  angels  minister  as 
attend  also  around  his  throne !  Such  were  the 
sad  consequences  of  apostacy  and  depravity 
into  which  the  people  of  Israel  had  been  led 
by  their  forgetfulness  of  their  covenant  state. 
And  God,  in  the  solemn  expostulation  to  which 
we  have  already  referred,  condescends  to  set 
their  sin  before  them  in  this  light,  as  resulting 
immediately  from  such  insensibility.  "I  have 
nourished  (He  says)  and  brought  up  children, 
but  they  have  rebelled  against  me ;  for,  though 
the  ox  knoweth  his  owner,  the  ass  his  master's 
crib,  yet  Israel  doth  not  know,  my  people  doth 
not  consider." 

And  will  not  God  upbraid  us  in  the  same 
manner  as  He  upbraids  Israel,  if  we  live  insen- 
sible of  our  covenant  state  ?  For  the  kingdom 
of  God  as  revealed  in  the  Christian  dispensa- 
tion, is  as  truly  a  state  of  promise  and  covenant 
as  that  which  the  Jews  enjoyed.  It  is  a  new 
covenant,  but,  like  the  former,  it  is  one  in 
which  Jehovah  declares,  "I  will  be  to  them  a 
God,  and  they  shall  be  to  me  a  people."     It 


SEXSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.  117 

differs  only  in  that  it  is  one  more  fully  deli- 
vered and  more  widely  extended.  For  it  re- 
veals the  whole  counsel  of  God,  which  before 
had  been  but  faintly  shadowed;  and  whereas 
the  former  had  been  limited  to  a  single  nation, 
yet  now  is  fulfilled  the  prophecy,  "  I  will  call 
them  my  people  which  were  not  my  people, 
and  her  beloved  which  was  not  beloved:"  so 
that  Gentiles  who  are  by  nature  and  blood 
aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  and 
strangers  to  the  covenant  made  to  them,  are 
become  fellow-citizens  in  God's  kingdom,  and 
members  of  his  household.  And  thus  we,  like 
Israel  of  old,  have  been  admitted  into  covenant 
with  God,  and  have  been  made  a  chosen  gene- 
ration, a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy  nation,  a 
peculiar  people.  We  have  been  purchased 
from  condemnation,  and  placed  under  the  guar- 
dianship and  headship  of  God — enrolled  into 
his  family  by  the  seal  of  baptism,  and  made 
members  of  his  mystical  body.  These  are  our 
privileges  and  our  heavenly  calling;  and  how 
can  we  escape  God's  remonstrance — how  can 
we  escape  being  reproved  by  the  ox  and  the 
ass,  by  the  very  brutes  whom  God  has  placed 
so  far  below  us  in  capacities  and  in  nature,  if 
we  know  not  nor  consider  these  our  heavenly 


118  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

relations,  and  the  duties  Avliich  depend  upon 
them  ? 

In  order  to  "know"  them,  and  to  be  able  to 
act  upon  them  as  we  ought,  we  must  "con- 
sider" them.  We  must  by  serious  reflection 
fix  in  our  minds  a  constant  sense  of  our  privi- 
leges as  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ;  the 
recollection  that  we  are  God's  people,  and  the 
sheep  of  his  pasture  \  for  by  this  Church  feel- 
ing we  may  become  more  alive  to  our  duties  in 
the  Church,  and  more  desirous  to  show  forth 
his  praises,  who  hath  called  us  out  of  darkness 
into  his  marvellous  light. 

To  this  end  we  shall  in  this  chapter  endea- 
vour to  enumerate  some  of  the  points  in  which 
this  sense  of  our  position,  as  members  of  the 
Church,  may  especially  be  manifested;  distin- 
guishing it,  as  it  were,  according  to  its  various 
aspects  as  it  relates  more  especially  to  God,  or 
to  our  brethren,  or  to  ourselves  individually. 
1.  Piety  the  The  first  and  principal  of  these — 
Church  feel-  ^^^^  ^^^^  which  may  in  some  degree 
ing-  be  considered  to  include  all — is  the 

sense  that  God  Most  High  is  a  God  in  cove- 
nant-relation to  us.  This  covenant-relation  is 
of  the  very  essence  of  the  Church;  and,  there- 
fore, if  we  rightly  know  and  consider  what  it 


SENSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.         119 

is  to  be  in  the  Church,  we  shall  know  and  con- 
sider our  covenant  with  God.  It  will  be  the 
result  of  our  Church  feeling  to  view  God  as  a 
reconciled  Father  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  to  be 
sensible  that  there  is  vouchsafed  to  us  in  the 
covenant  union  which  He  has  made,  a  mystical 
union  with  God,  and  an  opportunity  of  com- 
munion or  participation  in  his  heavenly  grace. 
And  how  intimately  will  this  affect  the  whole 
of  the  life  and  character!  God  has  become 
our  God,  and  we  his  peculiar  people.  How 
can  we  bow  down  to  any  other  god,  or  how 
can  we  fly  to  any  other  mediator,  than  to  Him 
who  has  made  us  his.?  We  need  no  longer 
attempt  to  hide  ourselves  from  God,  as  our  first 
parents  after  their  fall.  We  need  not  fear  Him 
with  the  coward  fear  of  a  slave,  or  tremble 
before  Him  as  before  a  tyrant.  We  may  love 
Him  because  He  hath  first  loved  us.  Our 
whole  religion  may  become  elevated  and  puri- 
fied into  piety.  Our  prayers  may  be  offered  up 
as  to  a  Friend  and  Father,  who,  by  that  sacred 
parental  tie,  stands  pledged  to  give  good  things 
to  those  of  his  sons  who  ask  Him.  Our  ser- 
vices of  obedience  and  good  works  may  be 
rendered  under  the  encouraging  conviction  that 
He  vouchsafes  to  receive  them  and  to  approve 


120  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

of  them,  and  worthless  as  they  are,  not  only  to 
Him,  but  in  themselves,  to  reward  them  for  his 
covenant's  sake. 

And  hence,  humility  may  be  added 
as  another  feature  in  which  Church 
feeling,  properly  cultivated,  will  naturally  mani- 
fest itself  For  it  will  not  be  possible  to  mag- 
nify God  for  his  mercies  as  our  especial  Redeemer 
and  great  Benefactor,  and  at  the  same  time  very 
highly  to  exalt  ourselves.  The  example  of  the 
Israelites  will  best  illustrate  this.  God  fed  thee 
in  the  wilderness  (says  Moses)  with  manna, 
which  thy  fathers  knew  not;  and  the  reason  as- 
signed is,  that  He  might  humble  thee.  And  he 
warns  them,  lest  forgetting  the  Lord  their  God, 
who  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  and 
out  of  the  house  of  bondage,  they  should  ever 
say  in  their  heart,  '^My  power  and  the  might  of 
my  hand  hath  gotten  me  this  wealth."  It  was  a 
difficult  thing,  doubtless,  for  the  tribes  of  Israel 
to  effect  great  victories  over  the  various  nations 
who  opposed  them,  and  yet  to  ascribe  nothing 
to  themselves  except  as  the  agents  of  another; 
yet  this  they  would  do,  if  they  fully  remembered 
the  Lord  their  God,  who  gave  them  power  to  get 
wealth,  that  He  might  establish  the  covenant 
which  He  sware  to  their  fathers.     And  it  is  a 


SENSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.         121 

difficult  thing  to  be  a  faithful  and  obedient  sol- 
dier of  Christ,  and  yet  to  lay  no  claim  to  merit 
on  that  account,  and  to  trust  that  all  services  done 
and  suffered  for  Him  will  be  accepted  through 
the  same  Redeemer,  as  the  Israelites'  arms  were 
rendered  victorious  by  the  power  of  Jehovah. 
Yet  w^ho  can  doubt  but  that  this  grace  of  hu- 
mility may  be  attained  unto  by  diligently  keeping 
in  mind  the  covenant  of  our  God  ? 

And  this  feature  of  humility  will  be  found  to 
be  no  less  the  natural  result  of  Church  feeling, 
as  leading  us  to  consider  the  nature  of  our  title 
to  God's  covenant.  There  is  nothing  in  that 
covenant  which  can  lead  any  one  to  presump- 
tion or  arrogance  of  heart,  as  if  some  especial 
favour  had  been  shown  to  himself,  or  some  in- 
dividual excellence  had  obtained  an  exclusive 
privilege.  Indeed,  if  a  man  should  presume  to 
suppose  that  God  had  made  with  him  an  espe- 
cial covenant,  what  evidence  could  he  adduce.? 
All  God's  covenants  of  old,  as  for  example  with 
Noah  or  Abraham,  were  made  wdth  such  exter- 
nal solemnities,  as  corresponded  to  the  great- 
ness of  the  occasion,  and  with  such  outward 
signs  as  might  leave  no  doubt  on  the  mind  of 
those  with  whom  they  were  made.  And  unless 
a  man  can  advance  like  proofs,  he  has  no  evi- 
11 


122  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

dence  which  ought  to  satisfy  him,  none  certain- 
ly which  would  justify  him  in  claiming  from 
another  a  belief  in  his  assertions.  God's  only 
covenant  now  made  with  man,  is  made  in  com- 
mon with  his  whole  Church.  It  is  not  a  cove- 
nant of  private  contract.  It  is  made,  indeed, 
personally  with  each,  but  not  to  any  one  par- 
ticularly above  the  rest,  not  to  any  singly  or 
separately.  And  therefore,  whatsoever  promise 
of  salvation  and  encouragement  to  well-doing 
each  individual  may  enjoy,  that  promise  or  en- 
couragement is  his  only  as  member  of  the  Church 
of  Christ,  the  society  unto  whom  the  covenant 
was  vouchsafed.  We  are  placed  in  a  vast  body, 
and  the  dignity  of  each  consists  in  the  combi- 
nation of  all.  Thus  the  individual  is  in  a  measure 
merged  in  the  society :  we  are  taught  to  forget 
ourselves  while  we  contemplate  the  fabric  of 
which  we  form  a  part.  If  the  alliance  with 
glorified  saints,  and  martyrs,  and  apostles  be  en- 
nobling, yet  this  cannot  raise  the  sordid  pride  of 
self-esteem.  We  find  no  personal  distinctions 
which  exalt  us  over  the  rest,  for  we  view  the 
whole  but  as  one  body,  and  its  honours  and 
privileges  as  partaken  in  common. 

Nor  is  presumption  fostered,  as  if  in  God's 
covenant  we  were  secure.     As  we  bar  not  God's 


SENSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.        123 

hand,  but  confess  that  of  the  very  stones  He  is 
able  to  raise  up  children  to  Abraham,  so  neither 
do  we  dare  to  bind  his  power  from  executing 
just  judgment  on  the  unworthy  members  of  his 
Church.  He  calls  and  He  rejects  with  the  same 
unerring  justice.  There  are  branches  in  the 
vine  which  must  be  cast  into  the  fire  and  burn- 
ed ;  ^  and  in  connexion  with  a  similar  illustration 
St.  Paul  admonishes  us,  "Be  not  high-minded, 
but  fear."  May  we  not  then  from  all  these 
considerations  infer,  that  the  more,  as  God's 
true  Israel,  we  rightly  understand  our  covenant 
state,  the  more  will  there  be  promoted  within 
us  the  grace  of  Christian  humility,  and  due 
moderation  in  estimating  ourselves } 

Again,  subordination  will  be  an-  3,  subordi- 
other  result  of  Church  feeling.  The  "^^i°"- 
very  idea  of  a  society  implies  a  certain  subor- 
dination in  those  matters  to  which  the  society 
has  reference;  and  all  who  are  members  of  any 
society  do  virtually  acknowledge  themselves  in 
a  state  of  dependency  or  relation  one  to  another, 
for  the  superior  benefits  resulting  from  which, 
they  have  foregone  whatever  advantages  might 
be  looked  for  in  a  state  of  separation  and  disor- 
ganization.   It  is,  therefore,  the  first  principle  of 

^  John  XV. 


124  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

a  society,  that  they  possess  then-  own  rules  and 
orders,  and  their  proper  officers  to  administer 
them;  and  a  manifest  obligation  lies  upon  its 
members  to  act  in  conformity  to  those  rules, 
and  in  reasonable  subjection  to  their  corporate 
rulers. 

Now  the  Church,  we  know,  is  a  society,  its 
specific  reference  being  to  matters  of  religious 
teaching,  and  discipline,  and  worship,  and  sacra- 
ments. To  be  sensible,  then,  that  we  belong  to 
such  a  society,  must  carry  with  it  the  conviction 
of  a  required  subordination  in  these  particulars. 
For  the  notion  of  the  Church  as  a  society  is  lost, 
when  we  reject  the  existence  of  an  authority 
therein ;  when  we  lose  sight  of  the  necessity,  on 
the  one  hand,  of  the  duty  and  responsibility  of 
its  rulers ;  on  the  other  hand,  of  the  obligation 
of  submission  and  deference  in  the  governed. 
And  this  subordination  is  demanded  by  the  he- 
ncfits  which  the  Church,  as  a  society,  is  de- 
signed to  procure,  and  on  account  of  which  we 
profess  ourselves  its  members.  We  cannot  rea- 
sonably expect  to  participate  in  these,  except  as 
carrying  out  its  true  character  as  a  body  corpo- 
rate; so  that  the  more  these  benefits  are  felt  and 
understood,  and  their  importance  appreciated, 
the  more  we  shall  endeavour  to  adhere  to  its 


SENSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP. 


125 


rules,  to  take  warning  by  its  censures,  and  to 
guide  ourselves  by  its  allowed  authority. 

This  subordination  to  the  Church  must  prac- 
tically exhibit  itself,  where  it  is  chiefly  called 
for,  in  the  dutiful  attachment  to  our  own  branch 
of  it,  in  the  desire  to  preserve  it  unimpaired  by 
any  division  of  communion.     But  at  the  same 
time,  although  manifested  only  in  one  particu- 
lar portion  of  the  Church,  it  must  spring  from 
the  more  comprehensive  principle  of  respect  to 
the  whole.     Many  persons,  perhaps,  feel  their 
obligation  to  Church  order,  and  exhibit  it  prac- 
tically in  their   particular   communion,  and  to 
their  own  particular  clergymen,  without  feeling 
this  full  force  of  the  general  obligation.     They 
feel  it  as  due  to  the  local  church,  instead  of  to 
the  one  universal  body,  and  hence  they  consi- 
der it  as  no  more  than  the  subordination  requir- 
ed to  any  other  society  relating  to  other  matters, 
to  which  they  may  belong.     But  let  our  Church 
feeling  direct  us  to  view  the  Church  as  a  whole, 
and  as  one  society  founded  by  Christ  manifest 
in  the  flesh — its  principles  and  rules  as  God's, 
brought  down  to  man's  comprehension ;  and  let 
it  direct  us  further  to  consider  the  indivisible 
unity  of  this  Church — that  it  is  one,  and  we  can- 
not make   another;  and  then    our  respect   for 
11* 


126  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

Church  order  and  discipline  will  be  placed  so 
high,  that  we  shall  esteem  it  an  act  of  impiety 
to  slight  them,  and  of  sacrilege  to  break  them. 
To  desert  from  Church-communion,  will  be  felt 
to  be  a  desertion  of  the  body  of  Christ :  to  create 
or  countenance  a  schism  ^  in  the  Church,  by 
setting  ruler  against  ruler,  and  communion 
against  communion,  will  be  to  rend  his  seamless 
garment;^  and  to  establish  a  new  line  of  pastors 
and  a  new  society,  will  be,  not  the  possession  of 
a  separate  fragment  of  that  garment  (for  though 
it  may  be  grievously  rent,  it  still  remains  indi- 
visibly  one),  but  it  will  be  felt  to  be  a  setting 
ourselves  in  opposition  to  Christ,  by  whom  it 
was  declared.  He  that  gathereth  not  with  me, 
scattereth  abroad. 

4.  Brotherly  Again,  an  acquaintance  with  Church 
love.  principles  is  calculated  further  to  lead 

us  to  a  certain  tone  of  feelinof  as  reg'ards  our 
fellow-believers  in  the  Church.  Towards  all 
mankind,  as  far  as  in  us  lies,  we  are  directed  by 
nature,  and  taught  in  the  Gospel,  to  cultivate 
the  affection  of  natural  brotherhood;  we  are 
bound  to  the  exercise  of  Christian  charity  to- 
wards all  who,  whether  in  error  or  according 

1  Note  7.  ''Note  8. 


SEXSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.         127 

to  knowledge,  sincerely  seek  to  obey  the  will 
of  Christ:  but  especially  does  the  covenant  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  bind  us  by  every  holy  tie 
with  those  who  serve  Ilim  in  his  own  institu- 
tion. The  full  recollection  of  that  covenant, 
and  of  our  common  reconciliation  in  Christ, 
would  certainly  make  us  unwilling  that  this 
trifle  or  that  trifle  should  raise  ill-will  and  bit- 
terness of  feeling  between  ourselves  and  our 
brother ;  and  in  things  of  importance  as  regards 
this  life,  things  in  which  if  differences  occur,  it 
is  necessary  that  the  WTong  be  resisted,  it  would 
make  us  ready  and  ^vatchful  to  find  an  oppor- 
tunity for  peace,  and  willing  to  make  conces- 
sions even  to  our  own  disadvantage.  Much  of 
this  Christian  feeling,  it  must  be  allowed,  is 
found  to  exist  as  fostered  only  by  the  recollec- 
tion of  the  similarity  of  our  faith;  how  much 
more  would  it  flourish,  if  grounded  on  the 
sense  of  our  actual  oneness: — on  the  know- 
ledge that  we  are  a  society  of  the  faithful,  who 
have  one  baptism,  and  are  partakers  of  one 
altar. 

And  not  only  towards  our  fellow-Churchmen 
as  individuals,  but  as  taken  collectively  also, 
these  same  principles  will  kindle  the  unity  of 
concord  and  peace.     We  shall  learn  to  be  in 


128  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

our  respective  countries  an  united  Church ;  de 
siring,  as  far  as  it  may  be  consistent  with  truth, 
all  to  speak  the  same  thing,  and  that  there  be 
no  division  among  us,  but  that  we  be  perfectly- 
joined  together  in  the  same  mind  and  in  the 
same  judgment.^  And  as  conducing  to  this 
end,  we  shall  feel  the  importance  of  the  pre- 
cept, not  to  forsake  the  assembling  of  ourselves 
together.  It  is  well  to  thank  God  in  solitude 
for  the  redemption  of  the  world,  the  means  of 
grace,  and  the  hope  of  glory ;  but  it  is  no  less 
a  bounden  duty  to  do  this  together  as  bound  in 
one  covenant  with  God.  It  was  ratified  for  all 
in  the  one  blood-shedding  of  Christ;  and  it  is 
meet  that  there  be  one  heart  and  one  voice  in 
rendering  to  God  the  tribute  of  thanksgiving  for 
spiritual  benefits  thence  derived  in  common. 
There  would  be  no  indifference,  no  ready  in- 
vention of  excuse  in  regard  to  these  duties,  if 
there  was  fully  felt  the  nature  of  our  high  call- 
ing, and  the  unity  of  our  hopes  and  privileges. 
Turning  to  the  Church  at  large,  the  same 
Church  principles  and  feelings  will  still  find 
opportunity  for  action.  In  what  country  soever 
tliey  may  be — of   whatever   tribe  and   nation 

'  1  Cor.  i.  10. 


SEXSE    OF    CHURCH-ME3IBERSHIP.         129 

upon  earth  they  consist — Avherever  the  Church- 
es of  Christ  may  be  found — One  is  their  founder 
and  origin :  there,  if  we  know  and  consider  our 
calling,  we  shall  own  our  brethren  in  the 
Church.  The  difference  of  nature  and  blood  is 
forgotten,  when  we  keep  in  mind  the  union  of 
brotherhood  in  Christ.  On  this  principle,  in 
St.  Paul's  epistles,  we  find  different  Churches 
sending  their  friendly  salutations  to  each  other.  ^ 
Christian  travellers  in  olden  times  were  accus- 
tomed to  receive  a  certificate  of  their  profession 
and  communion  from  their  respective  bishops 
or  pastors,  in  order  that  they  might  be  admitted 
into  communion  in  the  Churches  of  foreign 
parts.  And  we  read  that  it  was  the  custom  of 
Cyprian  to  admonish  those  who  w^ere  about  to 
sail  into  other  countries,  wherever  they  were, 
to  recognise  the  unity  which  subsists  between 
different  Churches,  to  remember  the  common 
stock  from  which  all  sprang,  as  the  principle 
which  should  make  them  careful  to  cherish  the 
unanimity  and  concord  of  the  brethren  among 
whom  they  might  be  thrown.  ^  It  must  be 
deemed  an  evidence  of  forgetfulness  of  our  es- 
sential oneness,  that  the  Church  does  not  now 

1  Rom.  xvi.  16.     1  Cor.  xvi.  19.  2  Cyp.  Ep.  48. 


130  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

present  a  like  picture  of  mutual  intercourse 
and  unanimity  and  peace.  With  some  foreign 
Churches,  indeed  (as  for  example  those  in  de- 
pendence upon  the  Bishop  of  Rome,)  among 
whom  corruptions  and  erroneous  additions  to 
the  pure  faith  have  crept  in,  full  inter-commu- 
nion is  of  necessity  suspended  for  the  sake  of 
preserving  the  true  faith  in  its  purity  among 
ourselves.  Yet  we  must  never  forget  that  we 
are  still  in  the  unity  of  the  same  Church  to- 
gether— still  one  family,  though  some  members 
thereof  are  to  be  avoided  as  unfit  and  dangerous 
associates.  We  must  still,  therefore,  think  of 
them,  and  pray  for  them  in  the  feeling  of 
Church  unity,  and  ardently  desire  that  the  time 
may  arrive  when  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel 
being  more  faithfully  and  fully  obeyed,  it  may 
be  in  the  power  of  our  Church,  and  of  other 
Churches  likewise,  through  their  bishops  and 
rulers,  to  testify  that  unity  before  the  world  in 
Christian  communion  with  them,  and  mutual 
intercourse  upon  the  principles  of  the  pure 
Gospel  of  Christ. 

Such  would  be  the  operations  of  a  full  and 
practical  sense  of  our  brotherhood  in  Christ. 
Teach  the  members  of  the  Churches  their  bond 
of  union,  their  mutual  relationship — say.  Sirs, 


SENSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.         131 

ye  are  brethren;  and  if  they  receive  the  admoni- 
tion, it  must  lead  them  to  act  as  brethren,  and  to 
live  as  brethren  in  peace  and  concord.  The 
unity  of  the  Church,  indeed  (as  we  have  before 
seen),  consists  not  in  these  things,  but  it  is  the 
source  from  which  they  spring;  and  when  once 
that  unity  of  the  Church  is  known  and  consider- 
ed by  its  members,  these  happy  results  will  ere 
long  follow.  Knowing  that  in  origin  and  fami- 
ly they  are  essentially  one,  they  will  learn  to  live 
together  in  the  unity  of  love. 

We  will  add  but  one  more  point  5.  Zcai  for 
to    this    extensive    subject.       True  oaiirf<uth 
Church   feeling   will    (lastly)    show  among  the 
itself  in  the  desire  of  extending  and  which  suc- 
perpetuating  the  Church  in  the  pu-  ^^"^^^  "^' 
rity  of  its  faith  and  the  genuineness  of  its  Apos- 
tolic order.     For  in  the  first  place,  there  will  be 
felt  to  be  a  solemn  responsibility  in  behalf  of 
those  who  rise  to  occupy  our  place  and  position 
when  we  are  gone  from  the  present  life.     For 
we  shall  be  sensible  that  we  are  not  the  whole 
Church,  that   the  present  generation   is  but  a 
passing  wave  of  the  stream  of  the  redeemed, 
passing  on  towards  the  ocean   of  glory.     We 
who   now    live  are   not   the  whole    Church; 
there  is  part  which  has  gone  before  us — there 


132  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

is  part  to  come  after  us.  We  are  but  a  link  in 
the  chain;  but  as  we  are  joined  to  Christ  by 
the  continuity  of  links  which  have  preceded, 
so  must  we  preserve  the  line  unbroken,  and 
ourselves  connect  the  past  with  the  whole  series 
which  may  follow.  The  Church  of  Christ  on 
earth  is  God's  inheritance.  We  cannot  exer- 
cise over  it  the  right  of  absolute  possession, 
for  it  is  the  gift  of  God  to  all  mankind  to  the 
end  of  the  world.  Our  part  is  but  a  life-interest, 
for  it  is  entailed  upon  his  future  sons.  We  rob 
God  and  his  sons  of  their  inheritance,  when  we 
are  guilty  of  any  thing  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
trust  which  passes  through  our  hands — when 
we  corrupt  the  faith,  or  hide  its  rays,  or  do 
any  thing  to  weaken  and  undennine  the  pillar 
which  is  set  to  exhibit  its  light  before  the 
world.  The  Church  may  remind  us  of  the 
torch-races  of  the  ancient  Greeks.  The  race 
does  not  end  with  us;  we  must  pass  on  the 
torch  with  which  we  have  been  entrusted,  to  be 
carried  forward  by  our  successor. 

Now,  as  these  things  are  fully  appreciated, 
so  will  be  our  sense  of  the  responsibility  laid 
upon  us  in  behalf  of  those  who  shall  succeed 
in  our  room.  Each  in  his  respective  place,  as 
bishop,  priest,  or  deacon,  as  God-parent,  or  as 


SENSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.         133 

simply  member  of  the  flock,  will  earnestly 
contend  for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints,  and  for  the  Church  its  witness.  Her 
bishops  will  desire  to  commit  the  things  which 
they  have  heard  to  faithful  witnesses  able  to 
teach  others  also.  Her  other  pastors  will  la- 
bour that  nothing  be  lost  or  forgotten  through 
their  neglect  of  the  good  things  which  God  has 
provided  for  his  flock.  We  shall  bring  our 
infants  to  be  baptized,  and  then  train  them  up 
as  God's  children  in  the  nurture  and  fear  of  the 
Lord;  remembering  that  God  has  "established 
a  testimony  in  Jacob,  and  appointed  a  law  in 
Israel,  which  he  commanded  our  fathers,  that 
they  should  make  them  known  unto  their  chil- 
dren, that  the  generation  to  come  might  know 
them,  even  the  children  which  should  be  born."* 
Let  not  those  children  rise  up  and  accuse  us  of 
stopping  the  transmission  of  faith,  of  cutting  ofl* 
the  channels  of  grace,  of  polluting  the  streams 
of  heavenly  wisdom.  Let  not  the  Church  be 
less  holy,  her  ministers  less  faithful,  her  people 
less  Christian;  let  them  rather  increase  in  faith 
and  holiness,  and  make  the  Church  the  joy  of 
the  whole  earth. 

^  Psalm  Ixxviii.  5,  6. 
12 


134  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

Among  hea-       And  secondly,  there  will  be  pro- 
iiiens.  moted  by  the   same  principles,  the 

desire  of  extending  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in 
the  dark  places  of  the  earth.  For  the  faith 
which  we  prize  and  venerate,  and  the  commu- 
nion in  which  we  participate,  these  we  see 
brought  before  our  notice  in  a  tangible  ener- 
gizing form.  We  see  them  concentrated,  as  it 
were,  in  a  society,  a  real  discernible  body  of 
men,  affording  deiiniteness  and  point  to  our 
exertions  for  the  truth  of  God,  and  called  to- 
gether expressly  for  the  purpose  of  making  that 
truth  to  be  known  and  seen  by  the  world.  It 
is  described  as  a  light  placed  on  high — a  city 
set  on  a  hill,  by  which  we  learn  that  its  true 
design  is  not  carried  out,  unless  it  be  exhibited 
before  the  world,  and  its  claims  and  authority 
made  known.  Though  it  is  one  Society,  it  is 
nothing  national,  limiting  its  privileges  to  one 
people;  nothing  local,  requiring  its  adherents 
to  worship  only  at  one  place,  and  to  undertake 
particular  pilgrimages ;  nothing  binding  to  pre- 
cise uniformity  of  ceremonies,  or  confining  its 
services  to  one  language  and  idiom.  Its  princi- 
ple of  unity  is  in  itself  a  principle  of  expansion. 
Its  principle  of  unity  is  one  which  reminds  us 
expressly  of  its  power  of  growth  and  perpetuity 


SEXSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.         135 

and  universality.  It  is  the  unity  of  one  root, 
and  from  that  root  may  new  shoots  and  suckers 
be  ever  sent  forth,  M'hich  are  yet  one  with  all  the 
rest!  The  plant  which  our  heavenly  Father  hath 
planted,  is  indeed  an  exotic  here  below,  brought 
down  from  heaven  itself;  but  it  is  not  one  whit 
more  an  exotic  among  the  snows  of  the  frozen 
region,  than  it  is  under  the  sun  of  the  torrid 
zone.  It  is  adapted  for  every  soil,  it  will  grow 
in  every  clime.  Its  very  nature  is  to  be  catho- 
lic; its  very  existence  at  the  present  moment 
testifies  to  its  power  of  successive  reproduction 
and  groAvth. 

Thus  the  view  of  the  Church  of  Christ  sug- 
gests to  us  the  duty,  and  also  the  very  means 
of  spreading  the  kingdom  of  the  Redeemer 
throughout  the  world.  And  it  gives  us  also 
the  assurance  of  success.  For  by  the  Church, 
as  the  instrument,  was  the  faith  first  planted 
among  our  own  heathen  ancestors.  It  was 
taught  them  not  by  books  and  documents  and 
old  records,  but  by  the  voice  of  the  living 
teachers,  who  stood  before  them  as  commis- 
sioned ministers  of  Christ,  inviting  them  to  be 
baptized  in  the  One  Society,  which  was  founded 
by  Him  by  whom  they  were  sent.  And  as  the 
Church    they  planted   here   has  been  brought 


136  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

down  to  US,  so  may  we  expect  that  their  labour 
will  not  prove  in  vain,  who  in  like  manner 
plant  the  Christian  Church  as  the  witness  of 
truth  among  other  heathens.  It  is  not  suffi- 
cient merely  to  promulgate  opinions  and  doc- 
trines of  religious  truth,  for  these  may  soon 
evaporate  or  become  corrupted  with  error;  nor 
must  we  merely  say.  We  have  a  very  excellent 
institution  for  the  preservation  of  the  faith  we 
teach,  and  for  the  carrying  on  of  religious  dis- 
cipline; endeavour  to  copy  it,  establish  one  as 
like  it  as  you  can;  or,  we  will  establish  one 
among  you  ourselves,  which  shall  as  closely 
resemble  it  as  possible.  No;  we  must  rather 
extend  to  them  Christ's  institution,  for  we 
could  have  no  assurance  of  perpetuity  for  any 
of  our  own;  we  must  kindle  their  altar  from 
ours,  and  light  up  their  flame  of  grace  from  that 
which  we  have  received.  We  must  not  merely 
water  the  barren  land,  but  must  open  a  cliannel 
and  turn  in  the  livinof  stream  flowino-  down 
from  the  rock,  which  is  Christ.  Then  w^ill 
they  with  us  be  in  the  unity  of  his  Church  to- 
gether, alike  part  of  his  mystical  body;^  the 
partakers  of  his  covenant,  the  heirs  of  his  pro- 
mises.    For  the  Head  of  his  Church,  who  as 

J  Note  9. 


SENSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.         137 

God  blesses  that  which  He  established  among 
us  as  man,  will  not  withhold  his  life-giving 
Spirit.  The  commission  which  He  gave  to  his 
Apostles  has  included  them.  He  bad  them 
teach  and  baptize  all  nations,  i  And  hence  we 
may  be  assured  that  he  will  gladly  receive 
them  among  his  sons. 

If  the  features  of  character  and  disposition 
which  we  have  now  enumerated,  are  the  natural 
results  of  knowing  the  meaning  and  truly  con- 
sidering the  design  of  the  Church,  as  the  one 
society  of  believers  founded  by  our  Lord,  it 
cannot  be  urged  that  this  is  a  cold  uninfluential 
doctrine,  or  otherwise  unfit  to  be  brought  before 
the  notice  of  Christians.     It  is  no  result  of  true 
Church  feeling  to  suppose  that  we  may  rest 
contented  as  if  our  salvation  were  already  se- 
cured, and  as  if  we  have  nothing  to  do  in  that 
great  work.     Our  inheritance  is  not  yet  in  our 
actual  possession,  nor  are  we  freed  by  the  Gos- 
pel   scheme   from   God's   righteous   judgment. 
Did  not  God,  who  guarded  his  people  Israel 
and  protected  them  as  his  own,  show  that  he 
was  a  jealous  God,  and  would  punish  them 
after  the  measure  of  their  privileges.?     And  if 

1  Matt,  xxviii.  19. 
12* 


138  THE    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    A 

He  is  forgotten  among  us  whom  He  has  called, 
shall  not  He  visit  us  for  these  things — shall  not 
his  soul  be  avenged  on  such  a  nation  as  this? 
Thus  God's  covenant  can  afford  no  just  ground 
for  sinful  indifference,  or  pride,  or  false  secu- 
rity. On  the  contrary,  we  have  seen  how  it 
must  operate  in  producing  a  filial  piety  towards 
God,  humility  in  estimating  ourselves,  a  due 
subordination,  and  an  unitedness  of  spirit,  and 
temper,  and  judgment,  and  heart,  and  worship 
in  the  Church,  and  also  a  desire  to  make  Zion 
a  joy  of  the  whole  earth,  to  extend  her  borders 
until  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the 
kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ* 
And  yet  these  holy  results  of  Church  feeling 
are  but  a  few  out  of  the  many  which  might  be 
enumerated.  It  is  calculated  to  extend  its  influ- 
ence over  the  whole  life,  to  give  a  stimulus  to 
the  exercise  of  every  duty,  to  brighten  the 
whole  of  our  religious  hopes.  It  is  calculated 
to  raise  the  heart  and  affections  to  heaven,  and 
to  prepare  us  while  here  below  for  uniting  in 
eternal  fellowship  with  the  Church  above. 
That  from  the  knowledge  of  what  the  Church 
of  Christ  really  is,  these  practical  benefits  may 

J  Rev.  xi.  15. 


SEXSE    OF    CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.         139 

indeed  be  experienced  by  many  members  of  the 
same,  is  the  writer's  sincere  desire;  and  if  in 
any,  these  good  results  be  promoted  and  fos- 
tered by  the  reading  of  these  pages,  he  con- 
siders that  his  end  will  have  been  gained,  and 
his  labour  repaid. 


CHAPTER   III, 

PRAYERS    m    REFERENCE     TO    THE     CHURCH    OF 
CHRIST. 


I. — In  hehalf  of  ourselves  as  members  of  the 
Church. 

THANKSGIVING     AND     PRAYER     FOR     PRESERVA- 
TION   IN    THE    UNITY    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

ALMIGHTY  and  most  merciful  Father,  we 
give  Thee  heartfelt  thanks  that  Thou  in  thy 
mercy  towards  perishing  sinners  didst  send  thy 
Son  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  into  this  world,  to 
take  our  nature  upon  Him,  and  to  die  for  our 
sins :  we  give  Thee  thanks  that  as  man  upon 
earth,  our  blessed  Lord  did  found  a  holy  so- 
ciety of  believers,  to  be  a  perpetual  witness  of 
the  truth;  and  as  God,  hath  promised  to  be  with 
them  and  bless  them  to  the  end  of  the  world : 
we  give  Tliee  thanks  that  Thou  hast  shown  thy 


PRAYERS. 


141 


great  mercy  towards  us,  by  placing  us  in  a 
Christian  country,  and  a  Christian  family,  where 
the  glad  news  of  thy  salvation  is  known:  and 
especially  we  give  Thee  thanks  that  Thou  hast 
permitted  us  to  be  made  even  from  our  infancy 
members  of  thy  family  on  earth,  and  partakers 
of  thy  gracious  covenant. 

And  now,  O  Father,  we  pray  Thee  keep  us 
thine  for  ever.  May  we  never  by  our  sins  be 
cut  off  from  the  body  of  Christ,  and  lose  our 
eternal  inheritance!  Cast  us  not  away  from 
thy  presence,  and  take  not  thy  Holy  Spirit  from 
us.  Preserve  us  here  on  earth  in  the  unity  of 
thy  Church,  that  hereafter  in  that  same  Church 
triumphant  in  heaven,  we  may  praise  Thee, 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  one  God  of  our 
salvation,  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen. 

PRAYER   FOR    COMMUNION   WITH    GOD. 

O  Thou  Head  of  thy  Church,  who  hast  united 
us  to  Thyself  in  one  family  on  earth,  and  made  us 
branches  in  the  heavenly  vine,  give  us  grace  to 
live  in  constant  communion  with  Thee,  receiv- 
ing by  the  sacred  union  which  Thou  hast  or- 
dained, daily  supply  of  grace  and  help  in  serv- 
ing Thee.     May  we  not  be  dead  branches,  graf- 


142  PRAYERS    IN    REFERENCE 

ted  indeed  into  the  vine,  yet  deriving  neither 
nourishment  nor  strength  from  the  root,  but 
living  branches  bearing  fruit  to  thy  glory.  And 
especially  may  we  enjoy  this  divine  commu- 
nion, when  in  the  company  of  thy  Church  we 
feast  at  thy  holy  table ;  may  our  souls  then  be 
strengthened  by  Thy  Body  and  Blood,  as  our 
bodies  are  by  the  bread  and  wine,  and  so  cleanse 
us  by  thy  Spirit,  that  we  may  evermore  dwell 
in  Thee  and  Thou  in  us.    Amen. 


PRAYER    FOR    COMMUNION    WITH    OUR 
BRETHREN    IN    THE    CHURCH. 

O  Almighty  God,  who  hast  knit  together 
thine  elect  in  one  communion  and  fellowship, 
in  the  mystical  body  of  thy  Son  Christ  our 
Lord;  Grant  us  grace  so  to  follow  thy  blessed 
Saints  in  all  virtuous  and  godly  living,  that 
we  may  come  to  those  unspeakable  joys,  which 
thou  hast  prepared  for  those  who  unfeignedly 
love  thee,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.' 
A?ne7i. 

'  Collect  for  All  Saints  Day. 


TO  THE   CHURCH  OF  CHRIST.  143 


PRAYER   FOR   A    CHARACTER    AS    BECOMES    THE 
CHURCH. 

O  holy  Lord  God,  we  ask  Tliee  in  the  name 
of  thy  Son  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  make  us 
thy  redeemed  to  live  as  becometh  thy  children, 
and  to  be  holy  as  Thou  art  holy.     Help  us  by 
that  Holy  Spirit  which  Thou  hast  promised  to 
thy  children  who  ask  Tliee,  to  believe  in  Thee, 
and  to  fear  Thee,  and  to  love  Thee  with  all  our 
heart,  and  with  all  our  soul,  and  with  all  our 
strength.     And  by  the  same  Spirit  enable  us  to 
do  to  all  men  what  we  would  they  should  do 
to  us,  that  beholding  our  good  works  they  may 
glorify  Thee.     Especially  as  members  of  thy 
holy  Church,  may  we  live  as  becometh  the 
Gospel  of  Christ.     May  we  honour  thy  minis- 
ters, thy  word,  thy  house,  thy  sacraments,  and 
may  we  be  all  of  one  heart  and  one  spirit  to- 
gether, remembering  that  where  brethren  dwell 
together  in  unity  of  love,  there  the  Lord  hath 
promised  his  blessing,  and  life  for  evermore. 
Hear  us  for  Christ's  sake,  our  only  Lord  and 
Saviour.     Amen. 


144  PRAYERS    IN    REFERENCE 


II.  Prayers  in  helialf  of  the  Church  in  general. 


FOR    THE     OUTWARD     PROSPERITY     AND 
SECURITY    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

Grant,  O  Lord,  we  beseech  thee,  that  the 
course  of  this  world  may  be  so  peaceably  or- 
dered by  thy  governance,  that  thy  Church  may 
joyfully  serve  thee  in  all  godly  quietness : 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen.  ^ 

FOR  INTERNAL  PEACE  AND  CONCORD. 

O  God  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
our  only  Saviour,  give  us  grace  seriously  to  lay 
to  heart  the  great  dangers  we  are  in  from  our 
unhappy  divisions.  Take  away  all  hatred  and 
prejudice,  and  whatsoever  else  may  hinder  us 
from  godly  union  and  concord :  that  as  there  is 
but  one  Body  and  one  Spirit,  and  one  Hope  of 
our  Calling,  one  Lord,  one  Faith,  one  Baptism, 
one  God  and  Father  of  us  all,  so  we  may 
henceforth  be  all  of  one  heart,  and  of  one  soul, 
unit&d  in  one  holy  bond  of  truth  and  peace,  of 

1  Fifth  Sunday  after  Trinity. 


TO  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST.  14-5 

truth  and  charity,  and  may  with  one  mind  and 
one  mouth  glorify  Thee ;  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord.     Jlmen. 

Almighty  God,  we  beseech  Thee  graciously 
to  behold  this  thy  family,  for  which  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  was  contented  to  be  betrayed,  and 
given  up  into  the  hands  of  sinful  men,  and  to 
suffer  death  upon  the  cross.  Kindle  among  all 
its  members  such  a  sense  of  their  unity  therein, 
that  they  may  live  together  in  love  and  Chris- 
tian communion.  Let  not  the  Church  in  one 
country  be  at  variance  with  the  Church  in 
another  country :  and  more  especially  we  pray, 
let  not  any  Church  be  rent  into  separate  com- 
munions ;  nor  let  those  who  have  been  received 
into  thy  Church  desert  its  communion  for  a 
society  of  their  own.  Thy  Church  is  one 
body ;  may  there  be  no  schism  in  that  body  ! 
Hear  us  for  the  sake  of  the  same  Jesus  Christ, 
who  now  liveth  and  reigneth  with  Thee  and 
the  Holy  Ghost  ever  one  God,  world  without 
end.     Amen. 

O  Lord  and  Heavenly  Father,  we  pray  Thee 
in  behalf  of  those  who,  while  they  profess  to 
believe  in  thy  Son  Jesus  Christ,  yet,  forgetful 
13 


146  PRAYERS    IN    REFERENCE 

of  his  holy  mstitution,  the  Church,  forsake  its 
communion,  and  thus  lose  its  benefits.  En- 
lighten all  such  as  in  a  zeal  for  godliness,  but 
not  according  to  knowledge,  in  the  stead  of  the 
Society  which  Thou  hast  founded  on  earth, 
join  those  of  human  founding,  and  think  in 
them  to  enjoy  the  spiritual  blessings  of  thy 
Church.  May  they  see  their  error  and  their 
danger,  and  do  Thou,  the  good  Shepherd  of 
thy  sheep,  bring  them  again  to  thy  pasture. 
And  while  they  remain  divided  from  us,  may 
we  never  fail  in  Christian  charity  towards 
them :  may  no  unholy  feeling  of  bitterness,  or 
ill-will  towards  them,  take  possession  of  our 
hearts:  may  we  never  seek  to  find  needless 
fault,  or  to  triumph  over  their  failings,  remem- 
bering our  own  errors  and  infirmities,  and 
taking  heed  lest  we  cast  a  stumbling-block  in 
the  way  of  others,  or  fall  ourselves.  May  we 
never  cease  to  pray  for  them,  that  they  with  us 
may  walk  as  brethren,  and  be  one  fold  under 
one  Shepherd,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord ;  to  whom 
with  Thee  and  the  Holy  Ghost  be  all  honour 
and  glory  now  and  for  ever.     Jlmen. 


TO  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST.  147 


FOR    PURITY    OF    LIFE    AND    DOCTRINE. 

Almighty  God,  who  shewest  to  them  that 
are  in  error  the  light  of  thy  truth,  to  the  intent 
that  they  may  return  into  the  way  of  righteous- 
ness; Grant  unto  all  those  who  are  admitted 
into  the  fellowship  of  Christ's  Religion,  that 
they  may  avoid  those  things  that  are  contrary 
to  their  profession,  and  follow  all  such  things 
as  are  agreeable  to  the  same ;  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.^     Jimen. 

O  Almighty  God,  who  hast  built  thy  Church 
upon  the  foundation  of  the  Apostles  and  Pro- 
phets, Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  head 
corner-stone;  Grant  us  so  to  be  joined  together 
in  unity  of  spirit  by  their  doctrine,  that  we  may 
be  made  an  holy  temple  acceptable  unto  thee; 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  2     Amen. 


FOR    BISHOPS,    PRIESTS,    AND    DEACONS. 

Almighty   God,  our   heavenly   Father,  who 
hast  purchased  to  Thyself  an  universal  Church 


'  Third  Sunday  after  Easter. 

2  Collect  for  St.  Simon  and  St.  Jude. 


148  PRAYERS    IN    REFERENCE 

by  the  precious  blood  of  thy  clear  Son ;  Give 
thy  grace  and  heavenly  benediction  to  those 
who  are  called  to  any  holy  function  in  the 
same.  Teach  them  that  they  may  teach  others. 
May  they  be  an  example  to  believers  in  word, 
in  conversation,  in  charity,  in  faith,  in  purity. 
May  they  earnestly  give  attendance  to  reading, 
to  exhortation,  to  doctrine,  not  neglecting  the 
gift  that  is  in  them,  but  watching  for  the  souls 
committed  to  their  care  as  those  who  must  give 
an  account.  And  may  thy  faithful  people  re- 
ceive them  as  ambassadors  for  Christ,  and  be 
ready  always  to  esteem  them  very  highly  for 
their  works'  sake;  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.    Jlmen. 


FOR    THE    EXTENSION    OF    CHRIST'S    CHURCH. 

p  O  merciful  God,  who  hast  made  all  men,  and 
hatest  nothing  that  thou  hast  made,  nor  wouldest 
the  death  of  a  sinner,  but  rather  that  he  may  be 
converted  and  live ;  Have  mercy  upon  all  Jews, 
Turks,  Infidels,  and  Heretics,  and  take  from 
them  all  ignorance,  hardness  of  heart,  and  con- 
tempt of  thy  Word;  and  so  fetch  them  home, 
blessed  Lord,  to  thy  flock,  tliat  tliey  may  be 
saved  among  tlie  remnant  of  the  true  Israelites, 


TO  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST.  149 

and  be  made  one  fold  under  one  Shepherd,  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord,  who  liveth  and  reigneth  with 
Thee  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  one  God,  world  with- 
out end.i     Amen. 

When  we  pray  in  behalf  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  our  own  Branch  of  it  may  justly  demand 
our  especial  attention.  The  various  other 
Branches,  however,  throughout  the  whole 
world,  must  not  be  wholly  overlooked.  The 
following-  table  is  intended  to  bring  before  the 
mind  some  general  idea  of  the  extent  of  Christ's 
Holy  Catholic  Church  militant  here  upon  earth : 
where  recent  information  could  not  be  pro- 
cured, the  deficiency  has  been  m  some  degree 
supplied  from  earlier  sources. 

1  Collect  for  Good  Friday. 


13^ 


150 


THE    PRINCIPAL    CHURCHES 


THROUGHOUT    THE    WORLD. 


151 


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NOTES 


Note  I.  p.  25. 

The  making  the  Church  to  be  a  mere  abstraction 
may,  perhaps,  ren^ind  those  acquainted  with  Church 
History  of  the  error  of  the  Docetae,  in  respect  to  another 
article  of  the  Creed.  These  heretics  taught  that  our 
Saviour  was  only  a  phantom  and  not  a  real  man. 

Note  II.  p.   31. 

The  Church  of  Christ  is  called  universal  or  catholic, 
as  implying  its  extent  as  one  whole,  one  every  where. 
It  is  an  error  to  imagine  that  the  Church  of  Christ  is  an 
universal  in  the  logical  sense  of  the  word.  The  Church 
of  Christ  is  not  a  term  which  can  be  predicated  of  the 
particular  Churches,  nor  may  those  things  which  are 
predicated  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  be,  therefore,  predi- 
cated of  any  particular  Church  ;  which  might  be  done, 
if  it  were  an  "  universal."  The  Church  of  Christ  is  an 
individuum,  and  local  Churches  are  not  logically,  but 
physically  included  in  it. 

It  may  appear  almost  unnecessary  to  have  mentioned 
this,  but  it  is  introduced  because  there  may  occasionally 


NOTES.  153 

be  met  with  ambiguity  on  this  point,  arising  from  this 
use  of  the  word  universal,  even  where  it  might  be  least 
expected.  Thus,  Bishop  Taylor,  to  prove  the  important 
truth  that  there  is  no  Catholic  Church  distinct  from  par- 
ticular Churches,  argues,  that  "  every  universal  is  but 
an  intentional  or  notional  being."  (Of  the  Church,  b. 
i.§1.3.) 

So  also  Laud  (against  Fisher,  §  38,  sub  fin.)  on  the 
same  question,  says,  "The  existence  of  the  Church  is 
only  in  her  particulars.  They  alone  supply  existence 
to  the  universal,"  &c.  Although  his  argument  appears 
to  establish  the  point  in  question,  it  must  be  remembered 
it  would  lead  us  also  to  conclude  that  there  is  no  Catho- 
lic Church  really  existing,  and  to  deny  the  unity  of  all 
particular  Churches. 

We  may  take  this  opportunity  for  noticing  a  not  un- 
frequent  misapplication  of  the  word  catholic,  of  a  similar 
nature  with  the  error  just  pointed  out.  It  is  used  as 
nearly  equivalent  to  liberal,  or,  as  meaning  comprehend- 
ing all  parties,  adapted  for  all  parties.  In  such  sense 
■we  may  hear  of  a  "book  written  in  a  Catholic  spirit," 
as  being  one  which  presents  nothing  repugnant  to  the 
peculiarities  of  even  the  most  discordant  sects:  or,  as 
being  one  which  so  far  disparages  truth,  as  to  ree:Hrd  all 
diversities  of  religious  faith  sincerely  professed,  as 
equally  acceptable  to  God.  So  also  we  hear  used  the 
expression,  "the  Catholic  Church,"  meaning,  that  a 
certain  genus  to  which  the  name  of  "Church"  is  (in- 
correctly) applied,  is  to  be  understood  universally,  as 
including  all  the  individuals  who  by  a  process  of  gen- 
eralization are  found  separately  to  belong  to  that  genus. 
In  the  true  meaning  of  the  word,  which  is  here  wholly 


154  NOTES. 

overlooked,  it  implies  the  attribute  of  unify,  denoting 
either  the  Church's  essential  oneness,  or  the  oneness  of 
communion,  in  which  latter  sense  it  is  directly  opposed 
to  "schismatical." 

Note  III.  p.  42. 

Thus  the  Arians  attempted  to  explain  away  the  es- 
sential unity  of  the  Father  and  the  Son,  as  consisting  only 
in  on6voia.  (Letter  of  the  Council  of  Sardis,  Theod. 
Eccl.  Hist.  ii.  6.  sub  fin.) 

Note  IV.  p.  45. 

In  controversy  with  the  Romanists,  the  question  com- 
monly argued  is.  Has  the  Pope  right  or  just  claim  to  be 
universal  Bishop  ?  A  more  important  and  practical  ques- 
tion would  be,  Is  subjection  under  an  universal  Bishop 
any  principle  of  unity  at  all?  It  is  more  important, 
because,  that  it  is  a  principle  of  unity  is  the  assumption 
upon  which  the  Pope's  claim  is  grounded ;  and  it  is 
more  practical,  because,  if  that  assumption  be  candidly 
laid  aside  by  the  Romanist,  even  though  he  may  still 
deem  us  in  error  in  rejecting  the  Pope's  jurisdiction,  he 
must  at  once  recognise  us  as  a  Church,  and  so  far  as 
himself  is  concerned,  renounce  the  sin  of  disowning 
Christ  in  any  part  of  his  mystical  body. 

Note  V.  p.  50. 

St.  Cyprian  De  Uiiit.  Eccl.  §  5.  Ecclesia  una  est 
quae  in  multitudinem  latins  incremento  fcccunditatis 
extenditur  quomodo  solis  multi  radii,  sed  lumen  unum, 
et  rami  arboris  multi,  sed  robur  unura  tenaci  radice  fun- 
datum,  et  cum  de    fonte    uno   rivi   plurimi   defluunt, 


NOTES. 


155 


numerositas  licet  diiiusa  videatur  exundautis  copije 
largitate,  unitas  taraen  servatur  in  origine  ....  [Eccle- 
sia]  raraos  suos  in  universam  terrain  copiaubertatis  ex- 
tendit,  profluentes  largiter  rivos  latins  expandit,  unum 
tamen  caput  est,  et  origo  una,  et  una  mater  fcecunditatis 
successibus  co^ins^.—  TertuUian.  de  Pmscrip.  Hceret. 
§  20.  Et  proinde  ecclesias  apud  unamquamque  civita- 
tem  condiderunt,  a  quibus  traducem  fidei  et  semina 
doctrine  cjeter©  exinde  ecclesiae  mutuatse  sunt,  et 
quotidie  mutuantur  ut  ecclesis  fiant.  Ac  per  hoc  et 
ipscB  apostolicae  deputabuntur  ut  soboles  apostolicarum 
ecclesiarum.  Omne  genus  ad  originera  suain  censeatur 
necesse  est.  Itaque  tot  ettanta?  ecclesise  una  est  ilia 
ab  apostolis  prima,  ex  qua  omnes. 

Note  VI.  p.  59. 

The  word  which  is  here  (Acts  vii.  38,)  translated 
Church,  denotes  any  assembly  or  convocation,  as  the 
English  reader  has  it  translated  in  Acts  xix.  41.  The 
full  title  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  is  £KK\r]aia  KvpiaKij, 
"  the  Lord's  convocation  out  of  the  world  :"  although  it 
is  also  called  simply  by  the  name  of  eKKUnta,  when  no 
ambiguity  occurs.  In  some  languages  the  single  name 
used  is  taken  from  one  of  these  two  words,  in  other 
languages  from  the  other.  Church  or  kirk  is  from 
KvpiaKii,  and  signifies  "  the  Lord's.''  Eglise,  ecclesia,  is 
from  iKK\r,aia,  and  signifies  "  a  convocation  out  of  the 
world." 

Note  V^II.  p.  126. 

Schism  means  open  separation  in  the  Church  of 
Christ— the  rending  of  the  Church  by  open  separa- 
tion between   any  of  her  members.      It  is  of  three 


156  NOTES. 

kinds: — 1.  External  or  Foreign:  between  distinct  or 
independent  Churches,  as  between  foreign  Churches 
in  communion  with  Rome  and  the  Churches  of  Eng- 
land, of  Sweden,  the  Greek  Church,  &c.  2,  Internal 
or  Domestic:  between  the  communion  of  the  lawfully 
constituted  local  church,  and  an  intruding  or  opposing 
faction  possessing  the  constitution  of  a  Church ;  as 
between  the  Church  of  Ireland  and  the  Romish  Church 
in  the  same  country.  3.  Sectarian:  between  the 
Church  in  general,  and  individual  members,  few  or 
many,  who  by  an  overt  act  voluntarily  separate  them- 
selves from  Church-communion. — See  pt.  II.  ch.  i. 
The  guilt  of  schism  rests  upon  such  as  needlessly  and 
wilfully  cause  or  promote  such  separation. 

Note  VIII.  p.  126. 

Our  Saviour's  seamless  garment  is  a  favourite  emblem 
among  early  Christian  writers  to  denote  the  unity  of  the 
Church.  (St.  Cyprian  De  Unit.  Eccl.  §  7.  Theod. 
Hist.  Eccl.  i.  3.) 

Note  IX.  p.  136. 

The  Church  is  called  Christ's  Mystical  Body,  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  his  natural  human  body.  It  is  incor- 
rect to  speak  of  Christ's  Mystical  Society :  for  although 
it  is  true  that  it  is  a  society,  and  also  that  it  is  mystical 
in  its  character  and  design,  yet  as  a  society  it  is  not 
mystical,  but  actual  and  discernible. 


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